Fritz/Photo by Thomas Warren
By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief
Back before my wife and I got married in 2022, she was attending school at the University of Oklahoma. She had a little apartment right near the campus in Norman and I would drive out there to see her, spend the night at a nearby hotel, then come back home. It was around this time that I met Duchess.
Duchess was my wife’s cat that she adopted when she was in high school. Duchess made the journey out to Norman when my wife transferred to OU after community college. A little grey tabby, Duchess was about as friendly as could be and was a good cat.
Well, unfortunately, around the time my wife was moving out to Amarillo and leaving Norman, Duchess got lost. Lauren knew Duchess had a tendency to hop in peoples’ cars from time to time, but she always made her way back home. However, this time, she didn’t.
Losing Duchess broke Lauren’s heart in half. And it broke mine. Even though I hadn’t known Duchess for that long, I hated seeing my soon-to-be wife go through the pain of losing a cat that was so close to her — and that was even closer to her than some of her own family.
Lauren finished out her time at OU without Duchess and we got married shortly after. She moved out here and I watched her grieve. But, in the late summer of 2022, she began mentioning to me that she wanted another cat to love. I encouraged her to start looking around, visit the Amarillo Humane Society, and visit with some local rescues to see if she could find one she wanted to bring home. However, the whole process ended up being too hard for Lauren while she was still grieving the loss of her cat and she ended up putting it on pause.
Fast forward to September, and I got a call one Sunday afternoon from Chip Hunt. Chip owns an antique shop down on 6th Street and is a true animal lover. Well, on this afternoon, Chip wasn’t calling to talk to me about the City Council or to tell me about a new antique record she picked up with me in mind. No, on this day, she was calling me about Lauren.
Chip knew that Lauren had been missing Duchess and she wanted to let me know that this tiny little kitten showed up in the parking lot of her store a day or two before. This tiny kitten’s eyes were crusted shut and all it wanted to do was be near people. Chip was concerned that the kitten might be hit and killed since it didn’t seem to be too street smart, or it might get hurt due to its desire to be near people.
“You need to bring Lauren down here to see this kitten,” Chip told me on the phone.
“Well, what harm could it cause,” I asked myself, before agreeing to be there shortly.
Now, I knew Lauren wasn’t going to agree to go see a kitten. She wanted a cat, but she just wasn’t ready. So, I told her we were going to Golden Light on 6th.
We drove over to 6th Street and got out at Chip’s store. By this time, Lauren knew something was up, but she agreed to go in and see Chip. We went in and Chip walked us to the parking lot in the back where this tiny kitten was waiting.
And, friends, it was like it was meant to be.
This little guy came running up to Lauren and she picked him up, held him, talked to him, and then told me we were taking him home.
We took this little kitty home, but we couldn’t get him to eat or do anything. All he wanted to do was be held and/or sleep. I told Lauren I was concerned, so she made an appointment with Dr. Ryan McKnight at Hope Road Vet Clinic. Lauren put our little unnamed kitten in a shoe box and took him down to the vet. By this point, we were already getting attached to the little guy — and I was pushing the name Elvis. I even think I almost had Lauren convinced that we should name our kitten after The King.
I anxiously waited for a phone call and then she gave me a ring. It turns out, our little kitty was a very sick kitten. He had a viral infection and a parasite, which explained the lethargic behavior. Oh, and it turns out he wasn’t a he at all. In fact, we had picked up another little grey tabby girl — just like Duchess.
Well, Dr. McKnight prescribed our little girl some medicine and Lauren brought her home. At this point, she didn’t weigh more than a pound, and getting her to eat was a chore. However, as the medicine started to kick in, she realized how much she liked food, and decided there was nothing wrong with eating. Then, we met the real Fritz.
Lauren picked the name Fritz from a list of funny pet names — and it really fit her. At the time, Lauren said she didn’t think our little kitten was the brightest bulb in the box, so the name fit her well. “Well, it’s no Elvis, but it will do,” I thought.
I’ve always been a dog person, but Fritz quickly grew on me. In fact, one of my favorite things about this little kitten was the fact that she would watch TV with me. And when I say watch TV, I mean she was sitting at the edge of the bed and staring at the TV. I quickly found out she really liked “Law and Order,” just like me. And like me, Jack McCoy is her favorite.
Today, Fritz is like our kid. And she is probably Lauren’s favorite living creature in our house — even above me. And I can’t blame her, because Fritz is a great cat and she’s tons of fun. She makes us laugh and has turned out to be just a great cat. But I think the thing that makes me the happiest is the light Fritz has brought into my wife’s life.
Nothing will ever take the place Duchess had in Lauren’s heart, and Fritz will never replace Duchess. But Lauren and Fritz are so close now that she’s getting to make memories with a little furry creature who helped heal her heart from one of the most devastating losses of my wife’s life. And while Lauren still does call her a “garbage gremlin” and sometimes threatens to return her back to 6th Street when she’s acting up, I know that deep down, those two have a connection that is truly special. And that’s why I’m incredibly thankful for Fritz and the joy she has brought into our home.
