About a month after saying good-bye to Jake, we had to say good-bye to Elwood as well. Just 9 days shy of their 20th birthday, Elwood reached the end of his life. Although he had been the one who had been declining more evidently for several years, he held on a little longer than his brother. I'm sure that losing his brother and forever companion was hard on Elwood. When he too stopped eating and purring and became unable to walk, we knew that it was time to say good-bye to him as well.
Although brothers, Jake and Elwood had very different personalities. Where Jake was mellow and social, Elwood was more high-strung and stand off-ish. For years, the kids probably thought of Elwood as some kind of urban myth because he would run off and hide as soon as he heard them coming. From his early days, Elwood was always the one who was climbing the curtains and skittering away from us. He was the more active and athletic one. We could recall times where he would be chasing Jake around the house. He'd run so fast that he'd just jump over Jake and keep running, thus going from the chase-er to the chase-ee.
While most of my pictures of Jake were him sleeping or relaxing, many of my pictures of Elwood are of him playing or exploring or getting into mischief.
We were never quite sure where we find Elwood or what he would be up to.
Elwood could never resist a moving piece of string or a fun toy. This is a perfect representation of the brothers. While Jake is just resting, Elwood is busy playing with a birthday party invitation.
Elwood was known to dart through an open door or hide under our bed where we couldn't reach him. He had plenty of instances of getting locked into a closet after he'd dash through without us realizing it. But it never seemed to stop him from doing it again.
Just as Jake couldn't pass up a good box or paper, Elwood was more prone to find a new nook or corner to explore.
But Elwood still liked a good box...
piece of paper...
and snuggle as well.
And in his last weeks, he was definitely more interested in snuggling and spending time with the family...
even the kids.
Even though he was more active in his earlier years...
he still had some athletic prowess even in his old age.
We were so blessed to have Elwood as part of our family for almost 20 years.
The house doesn't feel the same without Jake and Elwood here...
but we have 20 years worth of memories to cherish.
