Jasper

Bio

Jasper was a white-and-tabby domestic shorthair cat, and originally a stray.  We were told he was picked up in York, PA when someone found him inside a McDonalds’ garbage unit.  We first met him alongside many other stray cats, during the process of obtaining a replacement kidney for our existing cat. Some of the other cats distinguished themselves in various ways — jumping exceedingly high, or having fancy coat patterns.

What distinguished Jasper, and what led to our acquiring him, was his friendliness — he tolerated the difficult, tightly-packed conditions of his current life with aplomb, and no one could match his comfort with, and affinity toward, humans.  We did not fully appreciate this until our two previous cats died, or until we acquired two new cats to replace them, all of whom we love deeply, but we have never had a cat who enjoyed spending time with us more than Jasper.

Jasper started sleeping on our bed almost immediately, and was a mainstay on my lap in mornings and evenings.  His harmonious demeanor allowed him to acclimate to new cat companions with relatively little effort or strife, and over his eight years with us, Jasper never got into a serious fight with any of the other cats — four! — he lived with during that time.  Perhaps that was because he knew he always had a good and stable relationship with us, the humans.  No other cat could more accurately be called our companion.