Madison Chamberlin Obituary (2010 - 2025)

Madison was a beautiful, black, floofer cat with the biggest heart filled with love for his humans, especially his BFF Steve, who rescued him after Madison’s traumatic experiences. We don’t know for certain how old he was when he crossed over, but it was too soon. Steve and Madison were introduced to each other the first day Steve volunteered at Fat Cat Rescue. He was living separate from the other cats in the third floor bathroom with another cat who was blind. He was being kept apart as he recovered his health after having been abandoned in a closed cat carrier. Steve took a moment away from cleaning tasks to see if he could comb out his coat. Once the curry comb hit the side of his face, his enthusiastic purr bonded them. Madison had captured Steve’s heart. Although Cathy had told Steve he could volunteer at the shelter only on condition of not bringing home cats to add to our already large feline brood, he knew this one needed to live with us, and after hearing about him and seeing photos, Cathy agreed. In a couple of weeks, Maddy had moved into our vacant bedroom, to give our other cats time to adjust to another cat in the house. Maddy seemed frightened by the move and hid under the bed. Since he had had a roommate at the shelter, Steve didn’t want to leave him alone for too long, so sat on the floor during the day talking to him, and slept on the floor at night. He coaxed our new kitty from under the bed by gradually moving his food and water bowls farther away. Then, after six and a half days, he walked to the closed door and stared at the doorknob. His time to be isolated was done. Madison became the dearest feline friend imaginable. For years, he slept every night at the head of our bed between our two pillows. Every morning, he followed Steve downstairs as he dished up breakfast for all the cats, then sat next to Steve on the couch for morning word puzzles and Duolingo lessons. We called him our puppy cat because he would come to us when we called him and greeted us at the front door when we came home. After a month with us, his energy had returned enough to show us his enthusiastic playful side, chasing and batting. He loved to be groomed with rubber curry combs and we wore the teeth down to nubs on a couple of them. He made friends with our other cats, with plenty of head bumps. His closest feline friend, MacGregor, particularly misses him, and his human friends are so very sad that he is gone. Going through our photos, there are so many of him perched on Steve’s chest, or laying beside Steve or Cathy while they read or watched TV. Also loads of him just looking handsome! His long, smokey coat was just astoundingly beautiful. We are so grateful to the good people at Fat Cat for saving Maddy and letting us bring him to live with us. For all the times they told Steve how much he had helped to save Maddy, Steve told them that Madison did more to save him. He was a sweet, loyal friend for every day he lived with us. He will be loved by us forever.