Goobers came to me in a very odd way in a very odd place. My husband and I had a bowling tournament in Kentucky, we drove down on Friday night and planned on staying until Sunday morning, the hotel/motel/nightmare that our bowling alley booked us at was really cheap and run down. We bowled that Saturday and went back to hotel. Derek and everyone else went to the bar where as I chose to stay in our room. The air conditioner in our room did not work, so I propped the door open to get some air flow. In the middle on the night I heard meowing. I, in my sleeping stuper thought it was my cat from home and called him to me. To my surprise up pops this big sweet gray cat (Goobers was a Russian Blue) with an overbite and a corkscrew tail (kinda like a pig) purring just as loud as he could. I asked all around if anyone was missing a cat, the nightman at the front desk said that he just showed up one day and never left, he thinks someone may have dumped him there. I decided that he was going home with us. Off I went to K-Mart to get a pet carrier and a blanket! Derek was not too pleased with my decision but he let me do what I wanted. I save animals. That's a big part of who I am. On the way home from Kentucky Sunday morning, he slept in my lap all the way home EVEN when we got rear ended by an 18 wheeler! He always managed to amaze me…Goo was our little escape artist, we had the windows open in the spring after we got him home, he managed to claw through the screen and went MIA for about 3 days, I cried and cried. Derek was driving home one day and saw him walking with a group of kids. He brought him home to me and I was ecstatic. Then a week later, we had the window open barely an inch and he managed to slide it open and escape from the same whole he put in the screen a week before. Again Derek found him but this time he only went to the front yard. I never did understand how a 17lb cat got through a 2 1/2 inch opening. He would need on anything if you just looked at him. He would drool when he was happy because of his overbite. If you were in a room with him and he wanted you to rub him, he would find any exposed skin and nibble on you or he would wave at you with his paw stretched as wide and far as he could. I think he thought he was a part canine because he got along better with our dogs more than he did his fellow felines.  He had such personality and a spunk to him. He loved to sit in front of Derek while he was playing his Playstation and just watch him, he didn't want to be rubbed, he just sat watching him needing in the carpet. Anytime I took him outside he didn't want to play in the grass like most cats, he would flop over on the concrete wiggle like a worm. Gooey was a one of a kind kitty. We had him in our life for 3 years. Our home is missing a unique family member. I will miss my Gooey...