R.I.P. ACE - The sweetest black Siamese cat eve

Posting for bowl cat:

About 4 years ago, a black cat started showing up at our outdoor feeding
station. He looked like he had some Siamese in him by body shape but he
was black- we named him Jet becauuse at the first click of a door latch,
he was gone. After a few months he got used to us and would eat with us
outside talking to him as he ate, but he never made a sound and we
couldn't get too close. Then one day he finished eating, gave me the
exaggerated lipsmacking that means "Thanks that was delicious", uttered a
loud, long, pure Siamese MAIOUW then came into my lap and purred. Jet was
home.
A week or two later, my wife looked outside and said, "Jet got out! He's
on the porch eating now!" But Jet was at that moment asleep in my lap!
The new black caat was Ace, Jet's actual brother, as we found out- they'd
both decided our digs were better than where they were. We finally
tracked their owner down and everyone agreed we should keep them both.

Jet was 100% Siamese in every way, except for being black- he became my
'owner'. Ace was the same except without some of the petulant mood-swings
Jet could have. Ace was pure love- all he wanted was to sit in a lap and
purr and biscuit. They were both FIV positive which meant they had some
slight problems with sniffles or leaky eyes and were susceptible to
colds- but nothing serious.

A couple weeks ago Ace came down with an infection of some sort- the vet
gave him an antibiotic and checked his blood, which indicated his white
count was very low- but he responded very well to the antobiotic and was
healing well, better blood results after a week or 10 days- then his
spine got injured. We believe he was stomped on or sat on by our
extremely clumsy Australian shepherd dog who hasn't a clue how big or
careless she is. We believe he was slow getting out of the way due to his
illness- usually cats can get out of her path. But Ace had difficulty
with his rear legs all of a sudden- as well as his control of bowels and
bladder. Vet gave him a course of steroids which gave him some relief for
a day or two, but then his condition went downhill fast. Ace tried like
crazy to be a regular cat- he climbed up on beds and sofas to be with us
and be in laps, but only with his front claws- he kept going to the box
but his dragging rear legs wouldn't get over the sides of the box- so he
was usually messy and had to spend lots of time cleaning himself, which
was no fun for him- he got pretty tired and was truly heartbreaking in
his attempts to be his normal self- we couldn't let him struggle like
that, and the vet offered no hope on surgeries - very very expensive and
probably not successful.... so we had to let him go.

Ace was his true self at the vet's- all he did was put his head in my
hands and biscuit on my arm and purr...... it broke my heart. He was only
8-9 years old, he should have had more time to be a loving and much-loved
cat- but it wasn't to be.

Play hard at the Bridge, beautiful Ace- we miss you terribly and your
brother Jet says he'll try to cope- send purrs if you will- thank you for
your years of love and sweetness- we'll never forget you-

bowlkat