Your Pet's Story or Bio
Gilbert is EVERYONE'S best friend. But I am Gilbert's best friend. I've been a vet tech for a hundred years, so I've known a LOT of cats, but I can genuinely say that none of them are like my Gilbert. He was picked up by Will County police as a stray in rural Plainfield, IL and brought for a stray hold to the hospital that I worked at where he immediately got to work making everyone fall head over heels for him. To know Gilbert is to love him. The number of times we've heard "I hate cats.... except Gilbert" is too many to count. He's the gateway cat. He's shown countless people how incredible cats are and opened their eyes to how special being loved by a cat is. There's just something about him that leans a little bit mystical. Something more than animal. We call him "The Magic Man" because he's always seemed like he's just always been there. Wise beyond his years and beyond his species. I used to joke that he was immortal. I obtained him as an adult and in the ten years since, he hadn't aged a day. We teased that he just ran off when it was time and he worried that his new family would notice that he wasn't aging. There has never been a time where he hasn't existed. "In the beginning, there was the Word... and Gilbert." And now we've had to accept that maybe that just isn't quite true. He's lived an incredible life. He's been a model. One of the faces of Friskies' cat food! He's traveled and met so many people. Gone on walks in the city and the country and the suburbs. He's raised nearly a dozen foster babies (three of which have ended up staying). His broken canine tooth was the first feline tooth extraction done at BLVD Vet. He's such a fixture on my work calls that I think my coworkers forget that I'm the one that works with them. When I did a presentation in Texas for a group of hospitals recently, I used Gilbert's picture for one of my slides and the audience literally cheered for him because they've learned to love him despite being hundreds of miles away from ever actually meeting him. He's larger than life. But maybe not larger than lymphoma. More cheese fries (specifically, the little plastic cups of the nastiest, most processed cheese available). More ice cream. More walks and car rides and talks. He always loved to ride the bus and the train because he always loved meeting new people. Whatever Gilbert wants, Gilbert