Motorcycle riding cat dies ...

[smr-nj]

What a cool cat !!! ( Washington Post story )


For Motorcat, it was quite a ride
Motorcat's wild ride ended last week -- not on a motorcycle but at an animal clinic, where the fearless 17-year-old tabby succumbed to cancer.

For years, Motorcat and her human riding partner, known to all simply as J. Catman, caused double takes all over the Washington region as they tooled down the highways astride Catman's Suzuki 500, both riders sporting crash helmets. With her ears pressed down under the headgear, Motorcat was the ultimate hepcat, seemingly unflappable, her claws casually sunk into carpeting that lined the motorcycle's gas tank and back seat.

Cat and Catman first hooked up in 1987 at a local garage, where the grime- and grease-covered feline was already showing a proclivity for engines. Whenever Catman watched racing tapes at homes, "she'd be very interested and get up on the chair and start looking at the TV," he recalled in a 1993 interview in The Post.

The riding began in 1988. At first, the pair never traveled over 35 mph; Catman would give Motorcat nudges to let her know about upcoming turns, though she eventually learned to rely on turn signals.

Catman insisted she was always trying to get him to go faster. She also liked riding atop cars and, despite her advancing age, she still rode regularly.

"We had just gotten back from the Beltsville Recreational Park on July 21, and she seemed like she was in really good spirits," Catman said. The feline had developed diabetes in 1998 and breast cancer last year, and her condition deteriorated rapidly last week. On Wednesday, Catman says, he made "an extremely hard decision to put her to sleep." Motorcat was surrounded by friends at the Takoma Park Animal Clinic, where she had been a patient for 14 years -- but never for any motorcycle mishaps.

First Union Bank in Silver Spring is accepting donations for a gravestone and etched marker for Motorcat in the pet section of Parklawn Cemetery in Rockville. Any surplus funds will go to the ASPCA.

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Close up shot :

[cedar]

Cats are cool. We have to keep the door to the basement shut to keep the stupid dog from raiding the cats litter box (man talk about bad doggy breath when that happens). When our cat needs to go downstairs he knocks on the door to get our attention by standing on his haunches and using both front paws, starts speed bagging the door. Poeple that have never been over before think it's really a person knocking on our door when they hear it. When he finishes, he will knock again to be let up.

However in true cat fashion, he waits until you have left the room and got comfortable doing something else before he knocks to let you know he wants up or down. I think this is his punishment for us getting a dog in the first place.

[G.Reaper]

My helmet is off to Motor Cat, a true biker, even though his owner rode a rice burner. We also have a cat, T.J. is her name, who constantly amazes my nieghbors. When we go on vacation, my buddy across the street, who is allergic to cats, insists on taking care of her only because he has never seen a cat that listens like her. Rest in peace Motor Cat.