Fred came into our lives in December of 1985. Along with Lucy (pictured) and Ethel, he was one of the original “I Love Lucy” trio.

Ethel, Fred and Lucy. We always called this layout a Freddie Sandwich.

Fred, like most cats, loved sitting in the sun. In our condo, one of his favorite places was the corner of my desk while I was working.

When we bought the house on Cleaves, Fred had his own backyard, and his favorite sunny spot was on the deck.

After the loss of Ethel, and then Lucy, Fred was alone until Meg provided us and him with the four boys. Here he cuddles with Einstein (Cairo).

With the move to Ferndale, Fred became the only cat to be with us in all three houses.
Here’s the whole family on the futon, Lori, Galen, Ricky, Meg and Fred.

Cats are always good for dressing up the front of your house. Here Ricky and Fred do their part.

Sometimes Freddie could be amazingly tolerant of the little guys.

Throughout the years, Freddie kept us entertained with his little eccentricities.

In the last few weeks of his life, Freddie would often be found searching out those favorite sunny spots in the house. In the early morning when the sun would stream into the kitchen, you could usually find Freddie sitting there soaking it up, looking as if he was deeply meditating. As it grew apparent that Freddie wouldn’t be with us much longer, I wanted to take one last photograph of him to remember him by, and that photograph is featured at the top of the page.

On November 2, 2001, we decided that it was time to put Freddy to sleep. We decided to bury him out by the creek, next to a redbud tree that I grew from seed and brought with us from San Jose. That was one of the hardest holes I’ve ever had to dig, even though the shovel moved easily through the soft loamy soil. I take solace in that every spring when the redbud blooms, I’ll be reminded what a great friend Freddie has been all these years.

(2019 update: As I’m now transferring this content from the original HTML pages to be archived with the rest of our WordPress blog, I find myself in tears thinking about Freddie. He still remains my favorite cat. Shortly after he was buried, a flood eroded the creek bank where he was buried, taking him and the redbud out to sea. In 2018 during our driveway landscaping project, I planted a new redbud tree in his honor. Hopefully this spot will keep it safe.)