Chester's adoption
Chester's story starts on the streets of Pasadena in 2008. Chester was found walking in front of the Humane Society in Pasadena, and they picked him for adoption. We don't know if he was lost or ran away, but he wasn't a feral cat. They said he was about 3 years old at the time. They put him in a separate room with cats that had recently come down with a cat flu. Note, Chester is the black and white cat in the front in the picture. Cat Cat is behind him.

Linda was thinking of adopting a cat for companionship in 2008. She hadn't had a pet in a long time. She went to the Humane Society in Pasadena looking for a cat. She saw Chester being very charming and rolling around and wanted to be adopted. He caught her eye, plus he was a very cute cat so she decided to adopt him. He already had his name, Chester, so she just kept his original name.

Though he had a cat flu at first, and Linda was worried about him, he got better and he became her fast friend. She took him to the Hot Springs Desert home many times. One time, they took an airplane trip all the way to Florida. He held on tight when they went through the TSA, and he watched out the window during the flight at the clouds. Chester enjoyed the airplane ride, but he didn't like to travel in cars, as he often threw up on trips to the desert home. One time he made it all the way back, and then threw up only 5 minutes from home.

Chester was a very gentle cat and had a very calm personality. He was shy around strangers in general. He almost never got angry or tried to fight or bite people. Plus, he was very smart and often obeyed commands to do things, like walk up ramp to the bed.

Chester was an indoor cat, and he rarely ran away. However, there were a couple of times he ran out when he was younger. One time at the desert home Linda was calling him, and suddenly he jumped over a 5 foot fence like he was flying! Another time at Monterey park he went out for 3 hours and nobody knows where he went but he came back by himself slinking in.
One time while walking in the backyard, I heard a baby crying in the yard next door. Chesters' ears perked up, and he began running over to the wall, like he wanted to help the human baby. This shows what his character was.
Chester and CatCat

Even though Linda had Chester at the time, another cat came into her garage at the desert home looking around. Linda fed him and he stayed at the house. He didn't want to leave so Linda adopted him too. She named him Cat Cat.
At first, she kept Chester and CatCat separated, but eventually she had to bring them together at one house. They did not get along in the beginning but after some adjustment time, they became big buddies.
They did everything together and were together for many years until CatCat got sick with kidney and heart problems and passed away in Feb of 2023. Chester missed his buddy a lot.

Although Linda adopted another feral cat named Casey, he was much younger than Chester, and they never really bonded. Casey wanted to play with Chester, but Chester was too old for rough play.
When I first met Chester, he was shy and always ran away from strangers. He was not like CatCat, who was always curious when strangers came to the house. A sales lady for blinds came over one day, and Chester ran and hid. CatCat, however, jumped on the table where she was laying out samples, and was looking for
But as I got to know him, Chester warmed up to me over time and became friends with me. CatCat also became friends with me, and I walked him on the leash outside. Chester didn't want to run away outside, so he got to go outside without a leash, but was just being escorted.

When CatCat got sick we took him to many vet visits and treatments. He passed away at home, but suffered some at the end, as we didn't get the doctor over in time.
We wanted Chester to pass away naturally at home too, if he was not suffering much.
Chester thyroid problem

Chester was later diagnosed with a thyroid problem, and he had to take pills twice a day, morning and night. So, we always had to adjust the schedule from then on to give him his medication.
This stabilized his thyroid problem and it never bothered him from then on.

Lindas Trips
Linda had to make several trips to Indonesia starting in Dec 2023 and through 2024, and ending in January 2025. She gone for several months at a time on two trips in 2024.

So, I took care of Chester and Casey while she was gone and looked after the plants and the house too.
Chester liked going out to garden so we spent many hours together out in Garden. He would go and sniff around and lie in the grass. Occasionally he would chase feral cats out of his garden. So, we became much better friends during this time. He even liked to snuggle with me at night sometimes.

Chester's health problems
In January of this year, Chester had a dehydration and constipation problem, and he stopped drinking for a while. So, we took him to the vet, and they had to give him an enema to clean him out, then said he had kidney problems and needed to be on daily SQ fluid injections and a kidney food diet.

With the SQ fluid and other meds we were able to stabilize him and get him eating and drinking ok for several for months. He was responding to treatment well, and we were able to reduce the SQ to about twice a week.
But he also was diagnosed with borderline Anemia, and was prescribed some dangerous medication. After consulting several vets, it was decided to hold off on that until he got his heart checked to see if he could handle that medication.
We took Chester to a cat cardiologists and internist in April, and they diagnosed him with a heart problem, and said to hold off on the anemia meds and to start heart medication but continue the SQ for the time being.

In May 2025 we noticed Chester was having trouble breathing and so we took him to the Emergency where they performed and Emergency drainage of chest fluid. After that they said to start him on another med and stop the SQ fluids. He did ok for about 1 week, then started declining, he began reducing his eating and drinking and started losing weight.
So, they said to stop the new med, and we had start him back on SQ fluids twice a day. In addition, we had to syringe some fluids and nourishment and that bothered him.

He began to get weaker and weaker until he could barely stand and walk, and we knew the end was near for him unfortunately, but we wanted him to pass away at home, naturally if possible. But we contacted the in-home doctor to check appointment times that week.

Chester's Last Days
We starting thinking he was going to pass away at anytime on May 31, but he kept hanging on day after day for almost two more weeks.

We thought about taking him to his local vet one last time, to see if there is anything we could for final treatments, that would make him more comfortable in his final hours. But we also knew it might stress him out but decided to take the risk. At this point, he could barely walk, and he wasn't urinating much.
So, on Tuesday, June 10, around 1 pm we took him to the vet. I told him don't worry; I promise we wouldn't let them put him to sleep at the vet. But he was so very weak.

While at the vet, they checked his heart and breathing and initially said it was ok, but that he was barely hanging on and we had a couple of options for treatment or to just to put him to sleep now due to his severe condition.
So, while were discussing his treatment options for a few minutes, he suddenly starting having some convulsions on the table and he passed out, possibly going into a coma. The vet said his heart was still going, but that he was dying, and we no longer had any choice that he was suffering and we needed to put him to sleep right away. It happened so suddenly were caught by surprise and were stunned.

We got panicked and, after a rushed talk, agreed to have him put to sleep. We didn't think he would recover since he was already unconscious. They didn't say that they could do anything else for him, just that he was already dying. We don't what prompted him to have convulsions at that particular moment. Maybe he was stressed or just telling us he wanted to stop treatments and to let him go.

So, they prepared a catheter and after a praying over him, they administer they sedatives to put him to sleep and stop his heart. He passed away about 1.25pm He was over 20 years old, and had a long life.

Promises broken
While we promised Chester to let him pass away at home, and not to put him to sleep at the vet, when he went into convulsions and passed out at the vet, we panicked and thought we had no longer had a choice at the time. We still feel bad about that.
We still question our decision to take him to the vet and agree to put him to sleep, as we broke our promises to him. We are torn over that. We are very sorry Chester. We ask you to forgive us, Chester, we hope we can make it up to you, somehow. We love you very much Chester.

We had a very nice funeral for Chester on June 14 at the LA Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, CA. We invited friends. We had him cleaned and prepared. We prayed over him and looked at pictures and videos of him and Cat Cat. Then after the funeral he was cremated and we took his ashes home to be with Cat Cat.

Chester is now with his buddy CatCat in heaven, free from any pain, full of energy and playing joyfully with CatCat. We hope you are happy now, Chester. We love you so much and will see you and CatCat in Heaven someday.

I am posting this now in remembrance of the 1 year passing of Chester.