We got Apollo in the summer of 2007, I was starting my freshman year of high school. I remember when my mom and I went to the animal shelter to pick him up, he was so excited, he scratched my hand. My mom asked if I was sure I wanted this cat; I wouldn't leave without him. When we were training him to use the kitty door to come and go from our house, I remember he jumped over the fence in our backyard and ran into a very busy street. I swooped him up right before he went into the street. He was so scared, he scratched my neck. I still have scars from those scratches 11 years later. It's what I have left of my sweet boy. Apollo meant a lot to my mom and I. I remember right before I went to college, he slept with me the last several nights of my stay at home. Ever since then, if I wasn't at home, he would sleep with my mom so she wouldn't be lonely. That's gone on throughout college, when I moved away for a year, when I've traveled. He's just been the sweetest, gentlest, friendliest, loving cat I could have asked for. I moved home 3 years ago. At this point, Apollo was getting older, into double digits. He was a rescue, so we didn't really have an exact age, but the vet estimated about 2-2.5 years when we adopted him. As he got older, his left eye started looking cloudy. When my mom took him to the vet, she asked what we could do to make him more comfortable. The vet suggested surgery and eventually, removing it. My mom thought long and hard about this decision, would it really make him more comfortable? He's pretty old, would it serve him? She decided to have the surgery done on Apollo. Once it was completed, he seemed much perkier and we knew it was a good decision. Since moving home, a lot has happened in our lives that Apollo has always been there to comfort us through. I was hit by a car as a pedestrian. Luckily, nothing too serious, but ended up in a leg brace for a couple months. The first night I was bed-ridden. Apollo laid right by my leg, and would nudge it lightly with his head. It's like he knew that I was in pain and wanted to make me feel better. I experienced some traumatic events in my life and talking and crying to Apollo felt like the only way out. He would snuggle with me and my mom when we were sad, hurt, lonely, scared. The most recent event was the loss of a dear friend of mine. I heard of my friends passing on a Friday and my mom had talked to me about putting Apollo down that Tuesday morning. I remember Friday night, I was laying downstairs, watching TV, absolutely horrified upon hearing of my friends passing. Apollo just lay at my feet, purring and loving me. The last night of his life, my mom said I should bring Apollo upstairs to sleep with me in my room, so I did. He laid on my chest and purred in my ear until I fell asleep. I woke up early Tuesday morning, around 3:30AM and noticed Apollo wasn't there. I went downstairs, frantic, and found him on the kitchen mat. I picked him up and brought him back to my room. Again, he just laid with me, right in the crevice of my arm. I know that he would have kept holding on, struggling and being miserable just to make us happy. But it wasn't making my mom or I happy to see him hurting. He knew it was his time to say goodbye to us. Apollo always had this way of comforting us and loving us, no matter what the situation. He always knew where home was, he had this sense to him, where when he'd be off in the neighborhood and my mom and I were dealing with something hard, he would always come prancing home to us. Apollo could make anyone smile. One of my favorite stories about Apollo is this: a neighbor was having house work done. The construction workers would always be excited to come to work because Apollo would follow them around everywhere, throughout the re-model. "It was like being famous," one of the workers told my mom. That was Apollo for you: friendly, loving, comforting, cozy. We miss Apollo everyday. He will always have a "paws" in our hearts.