Thomas the office cat passed away this month after a long illness.
Seasons change. Employees come and go. Guests check in and check out. Thomas, however, was the one constant at ACE.
I worked in the Reservations Office for 2 seasons before I moved to Marketing and have had the Thomas experience. Reservations was Thomas’ home and he ran the roost. He was the king, and he knew it.
He seemed to be unaware of his size and would take on anyone or anything. There are various ACE urban legends about Thomas attacking a great dane. He was sweet but with an attitude. Thomas was so special to the staff that checking on him was on our opening and closing office checklists.
My first memories of Thomas take me back to our customer days. David and I had come back in from our very first river trip and after watching our video headed to the office to book another trip for the next day. Thomas was actually the first one to greet us as he walked across the counter in the front office and sat down at the end. I remember turning to David and the animal lover in me got all excited — I liked this place even more. Gazing up at me with those luminous eyes it was an instant connection.
You see, I have always been a dog person. My few experiences with cats have taught me to avoid these creatures. Thomas, however, was different. Before I knew it, without thinking, I reached over and started petting him. He twisted and turned and moved back and forth under my hand as if he were saying, “Oh, yes, here and here, too.”
Fast forward to one morning when I was working at the lake, and I throughly enjoyed watching him give our resident chipmunks a run for their money as he taunted and teased them. He was such a cool cat as he waited patiently on top of the drink machine for that chipmunk to reappear and then, with lightning speed, he pounced down to the ground and the chase was on. He didn’t hurt them but it was obvious he enjoyed the chase.
I asked some staff members, past and present, to share some of their memories about Thomas:
“One night when sharing my story with Jack and Lenore they told me how he used to catch the chipmunks and bring them into the office as if he were bringing gifts. Anytime I went by the office, I always looked for Thomas to get my fix. He restored my faith in the feline community. He will be missed by many including me.”
“Thomas helped make ACE home. While he loved stealing my chair and got mad when I threw him out of it, he always came back for a scratch or a snooze on my lap. Having Thomas in the office made it easier to get used to ACE when I first moved out because I didn’t know anyone and he was the pet I wasn’t allowed to have on property 
It was always amusing to see Thomas outside, because you knew he was so tough and strong that he could kick any other cat’s butt, as well as those of most small dogs. You never had to worry about a rogue cat getting anywhere near the office because Thomas would guard it with this life (and really sharp claws).”
“Thomas was the very first creature to greet me outside the office the night I came to ACE. I will always remember his need to sit in the blue squeaky chair and at night we’d roll his chair out into the open area in the office so he could have his own chair and I could still sit back at my desk. RIP, and will be missed.”
“Thomas was there from my first day to my last. He was a loving soul as long as you didn’t have four legs and try to come near his office. He will be missed.”
“Thomas the cat … When I first started working at ACE in ’99, I was hired as a data entry person. I was way faster than they thought and soon I had to find more to do. Bo trained me on the phones and Thomas was with me all the way. He loved to lounge on my keyboard and make reservations impossible to take. He always seemed so loving until you tried to reclaim your space and he would smack the crap outta me. We lived on chick row so I learned to share. My favorite memories of Thomas are all the small creatures he would capture and let go in what is now Kathy and Sallie’s office. Frogs were his favorites. He’d catch them, eat them ,and then at just the wrong time puke them up all over your desk. I did love to see him in the mornings. I’m usually the first one in and he’d always greet me with a demanding meow of let me OUT!”
“The first being I met and fell for when I started working there was Thomas. I have hundreds of memories of him through the years. He loved to kick the butt of every dog he saw. Probably one of my favorite memories is the year he took a 3-week vacation. We were all upset, because we believed he’d eaten more frogs, gotten ill, decided to crawl off and die in peace. It wasn’t too long after he’d eaten a bunch of frogs, and had to go to the vet to be put on meds for poisoning. 2 weeks after he disappeared, Sallie and Kathy got rid of everything — litter, food, you name it. One week later, Thomas walks in like he owned the place (he really did own it), and walked around looking for his belongings. The following year he took another vacation, but that one only lasted 2 weeks, and nobody tried throwing his stuff away that time. God, I loved that cat.”
“It is said that the connection we have with our animals can have a calming positive effect on us … dear Thomas will be missed for his, what seems like endless years, of animal therapy he provided ACE staff.”
“When I first started, Thomas would either sit on my lap, or in my chair. As he got to know me be better, and I him, he just started sitting in my chair with me. After a while, he would take up the whole chair and give me indignant looks if I disturbed him. So eventually I had to get my own chair and pull his chair up next to me so we could still canoodle.”
We would love to hear if anyone else has memories or Thomas. Share them with us. They always make us smile.
