"That's what makes a good show cat," said Perry. "They've got to take the noise, the handling, which Granpa did. Some don't though. I've been bit. Oh, I've been bit. They'll tear you up."

By dint of going to cat shows and living past the age when most cats are a memory or a box of ashes, Granpa became a celebrity. "Granpa had been all over the world on national T.V. for his birthday each year," Perry told readers of the TICA Trend, an international feline journal. "Granpa had a birthday party every year on television. He got a vanilla cake with tuna and broccoli. He was a star."

Perry's star "loved to go shopping at PetsMart. If you said PetsMart to him, he was on your shoulder ready to go. He went everywhere with me, even grocery shopping. He got a check up every two weeks."