On February 27th, 2019 Reno L. Pepe crossed the rainbow bridge.

It sucks.

When Sarah and I were first married we would eat lunch together and then go to the cookie store. Nextdoor to the cookie store was a pet shop. We would always stop in to see if they had any kittens, because kittens.

One day they had a kitten. A single lonely dude. He was a ginger with orange eyes. The color of his eyes was important because when we first lived together our roomate had a ginger cat with orange eyes named Vegas.

We loved Vegas. When it came time for us to no longer have a roommate, Vegas was gone from our lives. But we vowed if we ever got a ginger cat with orange eyes, we would name it Reno.

Flash forward to this ginger kitten. He was all alone in his cage, he would wake up when we came in and then lean against the bars of his cage and fall back asleep. This went on for a couple visits. Why was no one buying this kitten.

One day Sarah said, “If that kitten is home when I get home I won’t be mad.”

That was all I needed. I dropped her back off at work and headed stright to the pet store. I am unclear what I was doing for a job, since I pretty much skipped work to get this cat.

While I was purchasing it Sarah called and asked, “Did you check him out?”

I said, “Yes and he is totally chill.”

That, it turned out, was a lie. Reno was as crazy as a cat could be. He terrorized our other cats, but they loved him. He terrorized us, but we loved him. The best way I have found to describe Reno as a kitten was that he was our abusive boyfriend that we kept going back to. He would hit you and then give you kisses. You never knew what was going to happen.

Our friend Paige is a great lover of cats. The first time she met Reno we warned her that he might randomly hit her. And like most people who love cats she figured he wouldn’t hit her, because cats love her.

He smacked her. Right on her face. Classic Reno.

Reno was bad at letting us know when something was wrong with him. He had all of his teeth pulled when he was a kitten because of some wierd cat tooth diesese. We only found out because one day when we got home he came to hang out and was drooling.

Another time we took him to the vet because he was acting weird. I am not even sure what exactly he was doing (probably no eating). When we got to the vet they ran some tests and said “He has a horrible bladder infection. There had to be symptoms.”

There wernt'. Reno didn’t play that way. He was a man’s man. He wasn’t going to let weakness get in the way of him being the best boy.

We left Reno with the vet for the day so they could monitor him. They really wanted him to pee. When we went to pick him up they told us that if he didn’t pee “The size of a quarter” that night, we needed to bring him back.

Once we arrived home, Reno walked stright to the litter box and peed a river. Like most normal people, Reno didn’t like using other people’s toilets.

Another (or the same) time, when we picked him up from the vet everyone was raving about what a sweet boy he was. Sarah was like, “No, I am here to pick up Reno.” Vet techs came to say goodbye and hug him. It was weird.

He had a follow up a week later and was feeling much more normal. We know this because about midway thourhg the day Sarah got a call from the vet that we needed to come pick up Reno NOW!!!

Apparently sweet little snuggly Reno had clawed at a dog that walked by his cage, cutting the poor puppies face up. I assume that the dog had ratted Reno out about something because snitched get stitches.

Reno had a personal vandetta against dogs. We were never sure if this was something he had from birth, or if it was aquired as his years went on.

When we were living in our condo Reno would go outside (on leash so as to not violate the covenents #HOAsSuck) when he was attacked by two dogs who’s owner couldn’t be bothered to put thier leashes on.

“Don’t worry,” he assured Sarah, “They like cats.”

Sarah thought “I am not sure Reno likes dogs.”

The dogs came over to investigate Reno, like dogs do, and soon had Reno surrounded. Like his honey badger ancestors, Reno does not give a shit. He turned into a ball of claws and death, holding onto one dog as he raked his claws along the dog’s soft underbelly.

The man attempted to pick his dog up, but Reno refused to let go. Sarah was able to break them up and headed inside with Reno. Reno ran upstairs and hopped up onto the cabinets.

When I got home he was still up their, his eyes huge. I got him down and we inspected him. He had broken a claw, that was all. I later found out that one of the dogs had needed emergency surgery due to the damage Reno had done. I felt bad for the dog.

Later that summer Sarah, Reno, and I were enjoying some time outside. Off leash this time, because wanted Reno to be able to get away.

One of our neighbors owned a husky. It was the nicest dog and they always walked him on leash. We saw them coming and I stood between Reno and the Husky just in case.

When Reno saw the Husky he didn’t cower in fear or run away. He started to get poofy and walked stright towards the husky. I grabbed hime tossed him onto our patio and Sarah hustled him inside. It was amazxing. Reno saw a wolf and was like “Not in my backyard!!”

It is possible that Reno was meant to be an outdoor kitty. He viewed the outdoors as his personal domain and took exception to the fact that we didn’t let him out there whenever he wanted.

There were numerous times when our balcony would be full of snow and one of us would open the door and think, “This will teach him.” It didn’t. In fact we always had to go out into the snow to get him.

When we moved, one of our criteria was that the house have a fenced backyard so Reno could go exploring. Our current house has the perfect backyard for that. It has trees, but not any that he could clmb to escape, a chain link fence that he could see through, and a bunch of angry squirels that loved to cuss him out when he was outside.

I like to think that in his later years, as he patrolled the yard he made peace with his dog hatred. Our backyard neighbors had two large pit bulls, which was worrisome because I didn’t want Reno to get an ego when he beat them up.

When Reno was outside he would always patrol the perimeter prior to basking in the sun. When he reached the back fence the Pitbulls would meet him and they would walk the back fence together. No barking or hissing. Just bros being bros.