Darwin was another shelter cat.  The newspaper had a picture in their Pet of the Week section, of an orange tiger cat.  I always wanted an orange tiger.  When I went to the shelter, the Pet of the Week had already found a home, but I found another orange tiger.  I couldn't bring him home right away, because he was going to be the Pet of the Week for the next week, but I left my name.  Then the shelter had an outbreak of disease, and they weren't letting any animals be adopted.  Finally I was allowed to get him.  I set up a vet appointment and took him there straight from the shelter.  At the vet's office, I knew I had made the right decision... I took him out of his carrier and sat in the treatment room, waiting for the vet to come in.  Darwin crawled into my lap, settled down, and started to purr.  I think he was just so glad to get some attention, that he didn't even mind the vet!  They drew blood for a test, and were surprised that they didn't have to put a bandage on his leg - he was so relaxed that his blood pressure hadn't gone up!

We named him Darwin, just because we were up to D in the alphabet.  I really wanted D to be a beagle named Darwin, but my husband said no beagles.  I liked the name anyway, so we ended up with a cat named Darwin. 

Darwin loves to be held.  Unfortunately, Edgar doesn't like to share my lap... Darwin gets his special time with me at night.  After I turn the lights out, Darwin jumps up on the bed and settles down next to my pillow, so I can give him some quality ear-scratching time.  He also purrs very loudly, for a long time, before going to sleep.  Sometimes when I'm having trouble falling asleep, I wish he would just shut up!  But most of the time I love having him purr me to sleep.

Darwin became very sick in June 2004 while we were on vacation. When we got back, we discovered he had a very large tumor, and was barely hanging on. We made the decision to let him rest, and sent him to the Rainbow Bridge.