Ayo the Listerine Cat

Ayo definitely was a very special one. He was a part of my family from his first days - we picked him out of the litter and then once he was 9 weeks old we got to take him home. He was with us a long time, I was only 12 when we got him so he was by my side and my partner in crime as I grew up. He had some serious health issues from day one so honestly I’m so grateful that we got 17 years with him, although it definitely took a lot of effort to keep him healthy, happy, and comfortable. It was all worth it though, worth it to hear his loud Siamese yowl every morning and night at dinner time, worth it when he would slowly crawl into your lap and start purring as soon as you looked at him (and usually drooling too, haha), worth it to see him playing papa bear to our other cats and snuggling up with them (I’ve got 3 others and they all miss him too)... He always made my day better, even on days when he did things he shouldn’t have. 😂

He got the nickname Listerine Cat because Ayo, as much as I love him, could be very dumb when it came to eating things. As in, he would literally try to eat everything and anything he could, including a Listerine Strip he yanked straight off my finger. He was begging so I made the dumb choice to hold it out to him so he could smell it, a sort of, “See? It’s nothing you want, stop whining” thing. I overestimated his intelligence because he licked the thing right off my finger before I could even react. He started foaming at the mouth and I called the vet in a panic, naturally. She told me not to worry, the foam was just excessive saliva and that he would be totally fine. Once I realized that he’d be okay, the situation became very funny. Here I had this beautiful cat who was just dribbling foamy saliva everywhere and looking absolutely ridiculous. I took a video of it and posted it to Twitter and from that point onwards, all my Twitter followers started referring to Ayo as Listerine Cat. 

One of the photos I included in my little memorial post was a screencap from the video - felt only right to include what was one of his most memorable moments.  

He was quite the character.