Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST,partridge
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 12:52 AM

So sorry to hear this news. I remember Pat with great fondness. Sending lots of love to Karen and the boys

Pat xxx

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST,LTS on the sofa
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 01:04 AM

Word games..   Hmmm, yes...

He let me continue a Word with Friends game, just to see if I could get 600points, when he could have resigned and lost by a small margin, but he let it go on and I thrashed him by over 300 points. Between us, that game clocked up nearly 1000 points, even without me getting the magical 600... but that was the man. He'd continue playing the game, to see the end, not pull out half way because he was losing.

Seems he spent his life refusing to resign... So many times he could have just thrown in the tiles, but he didn't. Now the pot is empty, there are no words left.

LTS

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST,Gervase
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 01:50 AM

Just woken up to see this via FaceBook and thinking that a part of my life has gone. Bugger.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 02:04 AM

. . . sigh. . .

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 02:36 AM

I will drink to him tonight.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: mouldy
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 02:59 AM

I go away for a few days, and I come back to this saddest of news.
Spaw, your legacy of kind thoughts and incisive wit at always the right times will live on in my heart.
My thoughts are with Karen and the rest of your family and friends.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: alanabit
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 03:29 AM

It was those tough and often obscene posts of his which caught my eye, but you quickly realised that behind them there was a gentle spirit. He was unique and irreplaceable. Farewell Pat. We are really going to miss you.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Larry The Radio Guy
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 03:31 AM

Ut's so obvious as you read the posts what an incredible impact Spaw has had on so many people. Rest in peace.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: greg stephens
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 04:07 AM

Oh dear. A bloke who brought us so much laughter...something we need a lot. Thoughts to Karen. Thoughts to all of us

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: billybob
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 04:24 AM

The saddest news that we never wanted to hear, thank you Spaw for all your love and wisdom. We never met but you made a huge impact on the Rainbow,all my love to Karen.

Wendy xxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 04:59 AM

"The sweetest apple from the highest bough has been picked by a greater hand". Pat, Patrick Patterson (son of Patrick), you were one of the few people who, within the space of one brief paragraph, could be profane, profound, offer comfort, make me laugh & cry, but always left me with the feeling that something special had just taken place. I will treasure your posts & PMs. I will miss your humour & insight. I will miss your love of life which shone through every word you wrote. Above all, I will miss You, Pat, a man I've never met in person, yet feel I know so well. You have enriched my life.
         To Karen, your Family & Friends, I send my heartfelt condolences & love. Despite the ocean that separates us, Ann & I are by your side, each & every day.
                                     With Much Love,
                                                             Nigel & Ann Patterson (two 'Ts' in honour of Pat)
                                                             xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 05:25 AM

We always know it's coming to all of us, but it's devastating when it happens. I've never met Spaw, never seen him, and never talked to him except through posts on the Cat, which is a kind of diminished talking, but I'm going to miss him like a brother.

Since I read the news last night the words of Henry Lawson's The Outside Track have been running through my mind, especially that last verse,

And one by one, and two by two,
Sailed from the wharf since then;
I said good-bye to the last I knew,
The last of the careless men.
And I can't but think the times we had,
Were the best times after all;
As I turn aside with a lonely glass,
And drink to the bar-room wall.

For they marry and go as the world rolls back,
They marry and vanish and die;
But their spirit shall live on the outside track,
As long as the years go by.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 05:34 AM

I consider myself something of a 'wordsmith'. But there are times when words fail.
Farewell to one of the good ones.

R.I.P. Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Raedwulf
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 05:44 AM

I bet he left halfway through 6 arguments, just to annoy the hell out of the opposition! :) See you on the other side (eventually, I hope), Pat.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Les from Hull
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 06:49 AM

Going to miss this guy. Night night Spas.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: vectis
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 06:49 AM

One of the funniest and most erudite men I met on-line. He will be missed by so many of us. RIP Spaw.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 06:54 AM

The old devil got me my virtual job as chief bedpan operative at the NYCFTTS and I've always relished his kind (if physically damaged) heart, disguised in his scatalogical postings. Another part of the Mudcat gone too soon. I'll never get to link him to my latest set of Greek photos. That celestial folk band of departed Mudcatters just gets bigger.
Kali Nichta, Pat,
RtS

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: nutty
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 07:03 AM

Can't say anything that hasn't already been said. I hoped (a vain hope ) to meet him one day and find out if his physical personna was as large as the one he assumed online. A giant of a man with a ready wit he had me laughing out loud on so many, many occassions. RIP Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST,Fossil
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 07:31 AM

Oh dear... Bugger... Why always the good 'uns? So long, old timer. We will indeed miss you. Condolences to family and friends. Love to the rest of the grieving Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Max
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 07:42 AM

A damn fine man done gone. Farewell old friend.

Karen, we're here for you. You have a very large, albeit very odd army of weirdos at your beck and call. Much love.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: David C. Carter
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 07:59 AM

One of the best persons I sadly never got to meet.

RIP


David

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 08:10 AM

Hello, old friends. Not the reunion I would have chosen, but as we pass in the aisles and pews, I am grateful for the reminder that this is not really Brigadoon, but an actual community filled with amazing, struggling, flawed, warm, real, gorgeous human beings.

I too imagine this sunny Saturday as 'Spaw strolls up to the Great Getaway in the Sky. Thusly: http://youtu.be/bSC6Ciqyjwc

Pat's heart and soul, his devotion to his family, his intelligence were always clear and appealing, and one of the things I loved best about him, as Mick said, was that he could and would "call out ignorance in a straightforward and unvarnished way". The world needs more of that.

I look forward to strolling back through his posts from over the years, and remembering (as well as his wisdom) the many, many early morning cups of coffee spewed out over keyboard and desk, as I was caught defenseless in the face of his unmatched wit.

My condolences, Karen, and Pat's sons. May the memory of his great love soothe your grief. Thank you for sharing him with us.

I shall make, eat and share a big batch of Buckeyes in his memory.

Dani

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 08:42 AM

One of the joys with the Mudcat is the way sometimes when people open up an old thread to continue the topic, and you find yourself reading posts by Mudfriends who have left us - Rick Fielding, katlaughing, just for a start. So we can still hope to encounter Spaw again from time to time.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 09:24 AM

Well said - McGrath.

It's a sad day for Mudcatters, sadder still for the family and loved of Spaw. My thoughts and prayers go out to his loved ones. May we all keep his memory in our hearts - and continue to keep his thoughts alive through these threads.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST,jed marum
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 09:25 AM

sorry - that was me, above .... cookieless, at the moment - for some reason.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: JennieG
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 09:31 AM

To echo what I heard recently - Spaw was a good bloke. Love and condolences to Karen and family.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 09:40 AM

It's all been said. Just wanted to put my name in the book.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 09:40 AM

The boat has sailed and gone from our sight. But that does not mean the boat has disappeared.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: KT
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 09:53 AM

At last night's music session, in our dear Spaw's memory, I sang Bob Franke's "Thanksgiving Eve."
"What can you do with each moment of your life, but love, 'til you've loved it away...?"

Spaw's brought us all together, once again.

KT

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: fat B****rd
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 09:56 AM

As Peter K said.
Spaw was kind when I had my own sad loss last year and always a friendly correspondent. My best regards and condolences to family and friends.
Charlie.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Amergin
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 10:28 AM

Pat could always get me laughing and had a way of making me feel like a worthwhile human being...especially in my darkest moments...where all hope had failed me and I was barely going through the mechanical motions of living...and always supportive.

His stories of Cletus and gang were crass...vulgar but bloody hilarious...at the same time his stories of his boys would melt my heart, especially the one of Tristan and the truckers who g ave him a ride in the semi...

Fucking a....he was the epitome of what the cat was all about.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 11:13 AM

I hope someone can gather the Cletus stories together for us. Online, or in print.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: eddie1
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 11:44 AM

Someone once said that if you put your thumb in a pond, then pull it out, the size of the hole it leaves is an indication of the difference you have made to the lives of others!
Spaw, me old mucker, you have left a f*****g great hole. This thread proves that!

Bye!

Eddie

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Janie
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 11:57 AM

Thinking of you, Karen.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: bbc
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 11:58 AM

McGrath, that would make a great permathread. Anyone interested in attempting it?

bbc

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat
From: Big Mick
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 12:20 PM

In the very early days I had to travel to Cincinnatti, Oho, USA from my home in Michigan for a Union organizing drive. Spaw had it in his mind that he wanted to meet me, and he drove 3.5 hours and we met for dinners, stories, and songs. I remember that we did a call in to Max's office, and if I remember correctly, Max streamed it out on the net. It was one of the earliest 3D "meets" and I remember how excited Max was. For days, and maybe weeks, people would ask me what Spaw was like in person. They were surprised (as I was when I met him) to find that he was a gentle, soft spoken fella. His love of the community, that Mudcat was at the time, was palpable. The fellowship was wonderful, the jokes (of which there were many) were raunchy and hilarious, and we became fast friends.

I will miss this man. My Gran, Winnie, always said that it is always about the coming and the going. As I have explored and mined that thought, I realize that the fact that we die can never be the defining event. It is natural and we all end up "in our box" at some point. The real point is to live an interesting life, a life of consequence, a life in which one has loved and is loved. Our buddy, Pat "Catspaw" Patterson has met all the criteria for that. Well done, pal. Your voice will always be found in your family and in the many friends you made, both online and in the world. See you on the other side.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 12:22 PM

Cletus site:mudcat.org only 2,680 results

Not all are posts by Spaw, many would be other Catters referring to Cletus & the boys, & it would appear Cletus himself posted on occasion.

The first link from the search is from Spaw -Paw, Cletus, Buford, & the Reg boys - initial post 17 Jun 99, maybe the earliest reference to Cletus? and this is from Guest, Cletus

it's 2.20 on Sunday morning here in Sydney, so I'm logging off.

Maybe someone will have completed the job by the time I log in again later in the morning? she sez. hopefully

sandra

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Amergin
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 12:44 PM

There are alot of repeats in the stories....but so far I have about 30 some odd pages in word.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: gnu
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 01:06 PM

Indeed. So many wonderful posts. A grand tribute.

I am an emotional person. Yeah... yeah... I know... "No shit, Sherlock." But, I usually suck it up after a wee bit over these kinda things. Not this time. The tears just won't stop when I read the threads. So here is some personal therapy. I hope it comforts someone else. It's Spaw's 2nd or third last post to Nigel's thread.....

Subject: RE: Jane's Rainbow: for all needing support & comfort
From: catspaw49 - PM
Date: 24 May 14 - 09:46 AM

So...............Whatever you can cross, keep crossed.

This is the end of another chemo week and that has always been my lowest point. Made changes in daily meds and diet to better work the balance between the CHF, Intestinal thickening, COD, and the MDS. Today (and this week) I feel better than I have in a couple of years.....and even before the MDS. I look better, have a lot more energy, less O2 demand..went out and ran around yesterday PM and didn't even pack any along....Hard to tell what happens next.

We'll see what the numbers do over the next couple of weeks and know more then. Balancing this crap is a hell of a juggling act and about half of it I know as much about what to do as the Docs. We upped the Lasix but with the water being the best source for stool softeners and the thickening of the intestinal walls, the added Lasix took that water away as well. So I modified my diet. Then I modified the Lasix dosage (okayed by the my cardio guy) to some alternate day dosage levels and things are moving, so to speak.LOL Better yet, there seems to be no fluid at all around my heart....This is serious progress.

Then add that the current chemo has a strong fatigue factor and so is then accompanied by a steroid has obviously helped. I really wanna' see the numbers now....Keep 'em all crossed Folks.

I know, and you should too so there's no confusion, MDS is not curable but I going to buy all the time with Karen I can. While this past year has been great together, there has been far too many 10 day periods of chemo misery and many days spent low in numbers before I can get blood. Nobody my age beats this. Not Nora Ephrom, not Carl Sagan, and not me. But June the 8th is my birthday and my wish is for one more year and especially one where I feel like I do now. Next year I'll repeat that and see how long we can do it!

Sorry, I'm still pissed over the 'Cat but that's just because I do really miss what it once was. Time passes, things change, and as Tom Wolfe wrote, you can't go home again. I'll get over it.......

Hugs once again for the crew here and follow Nigel's good advice: Set the sails...splice the mainbrace...plot a course for the sun.

Spaw

Thanks, buddy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Big Mick
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 01:23 PM

"Set the sails...splice the mainbrace...plot a course for the sun."

Spaw (via Nigel)

Let me just "Amen"

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: skarpi
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 01:24 PM

R.I.P ..spaw ...

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 01:38 PM

Happy Trails, Catspaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST,Gervase
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 01:44 PM

It's been the best part of a day now, and I've spent most of it thinking about someone I never met in the flesh, but who always seemed to be there with kind words, profanities and a kick up the arse during some pretty dire times, and who was also there to whoop and holler and share the good times.
I have to say, I'm bloody gutted.
I first came here back in the Nineties, and Spaw was already a fixture. I remember once, when he asked if anyone could get hold of some bike training wheels for Tris, I though,"sod it," went out and got 'em and posted them to Ohio. The picture Pat sent me of Tris on his bike, whizzing along with the trainer wheels giving him confidence, lifted the heart. From that moment, although we were never to meet, Pat felt like the big, bad brother I never had. The sort of person my mother told me never to play with, but the sort of person you always wanted to be with.
I always entertained the notion that one day I'd go back to the USA and head off towards the middle and find this daft big brother and Karen, his long-suffering but lovely wife and Tris, his hugely-loved son, and share a few beers and maybe put him right on so many things. Now that won't happen. And that makes me sadder than I can say.
Through the years I've been a frightful curmudgeon; saying "It's just an internet forum; no-one's who they really are; we're all just binary blinks for heaven's sake," when people have gone gooey-eyed over the Mudcat, or fallen out and thrown their toys out of the pram. Every time I'd get a PM from Pat reminding me that, actually, it was much more than that. Behind every little blue name and pseudonym was a person. It's not exaggerating to say that he changed my way of viewing the online world, proving by his close friendship that I was very wrong.
And now this close friend, who I never met, has gone. And so I sit here in north London, tears running down my cheeks, in grateful appreciation of someone who demonstrated so well that basic humanity is a damned tough thing and, like bindweed, with grow through and confound any number of modern things.
As Larkin put it, and in Pat's case it's very true, "what will survive of us is love."
Goodnight old pal. Karen; stay strong, he loved you to bits. Tris; he was so proud of you. The rest of us; we were bloody lucky.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Janie
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 02:58 PM

So well said, Gervase.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: gnu
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 03:52 PM

Ditto Janie.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 04:13 PM

I heard a lot about this sweet and kind soul on here. We never exchanged messages but then some of the most influencial poeple you know on here may never share a message with you either. It don't matter. What they were, what they stood for, and how they are remembered is what matters....

My sympathy to his family and many friends. And to the legend he will become...

RIP Catspaw :)

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Will Fly
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 04:14 PM

Just back from a gig to read all this. Another one gone. What can one say that hasn't been said...

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 04:34 PM

Peace to Karen, Michael and Tris.
RIP, Spaw
SINS

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 06:28 PM

Spaw always seemed larger than life here on Mudcat, and he still seems to be very much alive here when you read his posts again. At least he will never have to put up with more threads about curly pows!

I shall miss his irreverent and lively posts - much love to Karen and the family in their sad loss.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pat "Catspaw49" Patterson - June 20, 2014
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 21 Jun 14 - 06:55 PM

What a huge loss to everyone who knew him. If there is a better place - I'm sure he's there already.

Thanks for everything Pat.