After 15 happy and fulfilling years, our beloved cat Freeman passed away peacefully at home last week after a brief but quickly progressing illness, and was laid to rest peacefully under a shady tree where we now visit him often.. We will always remember our little Freeman, or "Free" as he was affectionately known to us.. I used to like to joke with my daughter that Free was "older than the internet", as it was so new when he was born in 1994. At the time, I worked in the Information Technology Department at Hanna Barbera Studios in Hollywood, coordinating the purchase of computer equipment for the studio. At the time, the internet was a pretty new concept & hadn't yet really gone mainstream.. The idea of everyone having the internet on their desktop at work was still a pretty state-of-the-art thing and cutting edge in '94. One of the projects our department helped roll out was setting up company-wide online messageboards..
One day I saw a post from a co-worker that she had found some kittens in an abandoned house near a bookstore owned by her family, Dutton's Books in North Hollywood, CA. At the time, my wife and I were looking for a new kitten to share our home, and so I went to see the little guys.. One of them was a cute little gray tabby with a lot of spunk, who was the one I chose... After debating what to name the cute little guy, we happened to glance down at a box cover of a video on the coffeetable of the movie "Shawshank Redemption"."How about Freeman?"
And the little guys name was born... That was when I was twenty-five years old. I'll be forty-one next month, and thats a lot of years to spend with a member of the family & its awfully sad to lose him... Thanks to Juliet Dutton for bringing the little guy into our life...
Rest in Peace, Little Fella....
