When we first met George, he was in a cage at the local shelter. He was approximately 2 years old and had been at the shelter for 6 months. Although we were looking for a kitten, George caught our eye with his engaging personality. After a quick pet, we walked on to see other kitties and George started meowing, as if to say \"come back\". We decided then and there to adopt him. When we first brought George home, he was a little bit feisty and aggressive, and he seemed to be scared of just about everything: spoons, plastic bags, toothbrushes. He would sometimes jump onto the kitchen counter and steal food, then growl if we tried to take it from him. After a few months in the house, however, he mellowed out quite a bit. He loved being petted, and he would share his mellow purr whenever we would give him love. He would follow us around the house and chirp at us constantly, and get right in our way when we were in the kitchen and he had decided it was feeding time. George also liked to play a game with daddy, where he would get worked up and swat or bite daddy\'s hand. He had BIG fangs, so sometimes it hurt! But he was just playing.... In the early days, we had another older male kitty named Sammy. Sammy and George weren\'t best friends, but they tolerated one another. When we rescued another small kitten from the bushes one night, we worried that George would be mean to her. Instead, he took little Lightning (aka Mousey) under his wing and quickly earned the name \"Mama George\" for the caring instincts with which he cuddled, groomed, and protected Lightning. It was truly amazing to see a big male (tom) cat love a small female kitten in this way. We would learn that George was really just a big sweetheart who loved everyone. Over the years, George would greet anyone who came to the house, in any capacity. He was the friendliest ambassador one could imagine. He loved meeting new friends and would endear himself to everyone immediately. People loved petting his soft, fine grey fur, and he loved it too. When George became sick later in his life, we always thought that eventually he would get better. It wasn\'t necessarily naivetÃÃ��; it\'s just that George was always a \"super being\" to us and we thought he\'d kick it. George was such a sweet soul that even his weekly (sometimes more frequent) trips to the vet didn\'t faze him. He was always in a good mood, always purring, always loving attention from everyone. He was a shining star. Unfortunately, although we remained optimistic, George\'s time in this world with us was up and he moved on in December of 2015, less than 2 weeks after our sweet Milton succumbed to a different form of cancer. Without George, our hearts will always have a hole and our lives will always be a little empty, but we will continue to hold onto all of the memories we made and had with him. And although many tell us to take comfort in the fact that we gave him such a good life, the truth is that he brought love and happiness to our home and we were lucky to have had a chance to enjoy him while we did. RIP, Georgie Boy.