Pretty much anyone who has had a pet knows that they can easily become part of your family, and so losing them is hard. It’s not the same as losing a person, of course; at least that’s not my experience. But it’s far from just nothing. Animals have personalities, and you get to know them individually, even personally. They bring an unpredictable but exciting randomness into our households, and enrich our lives in a way that is different from just about anything else. At least that’s how it is for me.

We got our cat “Soxie” back in 2016, along with his “bonded pair” buddy Basil. They were both rescue cats.

Basil was a big, naive baby of a cat, while Soxie was a bit older–a street smart survivor who could hunt rodents like a monster and knew how to keep out of the way of cars (a big plus for general cat survival). He was called Soxie because of his coloring–mostly black, with some white, including on his paws (sometimes I’d call him “Snockles” but he didn’t seem to notice.)

He and Basil were pals for a while,until Basil survived being hit by a car and then had to spend weeks in a cage to recover. After that, he always had a strange limp and Soxie stopped being his friend (the little ableist that he was.)

Basil died not long afterwards of an unexpected disease, and today Soxie died similarly abruptly. It was blood clot, we learned, which blocked off the blood flow to his back legs.

Based on how he was reacting and the input from the vet, it was very painful. Treatment might have been possible, but it would have been long, arduous and extremely expensive, and would then have to have been followed by another long and arduous recovery process. And because the clot was likely to have been caused by a previously undiagnosed heart condition, he probably would have experienced the same thing again anyway. So with all sorts of tears, my wife and I had him put down.

My daughters weren’t there, unfortunately. One of them is overseas in New Zealand, and the other two were at their respective jobs. The situation was dire enough that we couldn’t wait, not without causing Soxie undue suffering. So after it was all over, we called our eldest in New Zealand, and we told the other two when we picked them up from their jobs. And then after everyone was home, we buried him in our garden–the first pet that we’ve had to bury since we moved into our house last year.

Soxie was, we all agree (at least, everyone I have checked with), the best cat we ever owned. He had a weird mix of a personality–sometimes super-aloof and full of coolness, but at the same time frequently whiney and needy.

He’d come into the house meowing like a baby, desperate for you to walk him over to his food (which was readily available), or even better, for you to carry him there. And he’d purr like a mad beast if you pet him while he ate.

He’d like it you paid attention to him and gave him pets, or even if you picked him up and carried him around the house cuddling him (at least for a while). But he’d rarely actually go all the way up to you to get attention. He preferred just to sit nearby and make noises at you until you went to him and gave him whatever it was he wanted.

He lived an adventuresome life, and I think was a bit of a terror in our neighborhoods, both to certain segments of wildlife, and also to other cats. He’d regularly show up with dirt, leaves or cobwebs all over his face, which were a bit of an indicator of the sort of mischief he’d been getting up to, but he never seemed to care.

I mean, eventually he must have gotten around to cleaning himself up, but I don’t think I ever saw him doing it.

Frequently you’d find him stretched out on a chair or on the ground in the strangest of positions.

Often he made your feel that he was more fluid than solid.

He also had a little notch in his ear, which was the consequence of one of his fights. You can see it in some of the photos here. It gave him character, and according to one of my daughters, made him look like a pirate.

Soxie had a love-hate relationship with our dogs. He tolerated them, and occasionally liked to be a bit affectionate. But also liked to harass them, especially Bruno.

In the old days, it wasn’t strange for him to actually wait in ambush of Bruno, or to just whack him after first sniffing him with a supposedly friendly hello. I don’t think he ever hurt either dog, not seriously, but they were certainly intimidated by him.

And once, when my mother-in-law was visiting with her two dogs, we saw the most remarkable thing. Bruno and one of the visitors were playing boisterously, while Soxie was on a counter nearby, with growing irritation and diminishing patience. Finally the cat had had enough, and he fully launched himself off the counter and over another piece of furniture, landing directly in the middle of the fracas. The dogs fled in terror, fully understanding what it meant to be on the cat’s bad side.

In more recent days, Soxie was settling down a bit. He became less aggressive to the dogs, less prolific in his hunting, and more openly desirous for affection. It was irritating, because this affectionate side would sometimes rear its head around 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning, when he’d decided he didn’t want to wait any longer to be patted, and would hop on our bed to tell us what was what. Of course this was annoying, but given that this turned out to be a relative brief period, I’m grateful that we got it.

Soxie died today, with very little warning, and I’m still getting my head around the fact that this cat now only exists in the past. Well, in the past, but also in all these photos, and also in the movies–he appears in the small but pivotal part of “Kitty” in Doug 2: Electric Bus Boogaloo and Doug Three Doug Two, both of which you can watch here. But mostly, he exists in our memories, and in our hearts. We loved that cat, and I suppose we shall not look upon his like again.

Although we may end up getting another cat someday. Maybe a kitten. Maybe two. It won’t be the same, but it’d be nice. That’s the thing about pets, I guess–easy to love, sad to lose, but not impossible to get over losing.

Thanks Soxie for being such an awesome cat.