Awwww... the 18-year old cat that y'all may remember from the Christmas card passed away a couple weeks ago.
It was natural causes (he was 18, after all), yet I still felt pretty sad when it happened, 'cause of all the family pets, I felt attached to this one the most, probably 'cause he was so weird.
A year earlier we got a black cat named Spooky, and this was to be his companion. Spooky was a pretty husky guy at this point, and Sparky was so tiny and skittish. Throughout the year, he grew a little, but it always seemed like he'd be the little one.
Eventually, Spooky got hyperthyroidism. And Sparky, for no real reason, got huge. It was probably due to the fact that he became a lot less skittish over the years, and in fact, became completely docile, sleeping under the bed 18 hours a day and occasionally coming out to make himself known by whining in the highly-amplified meow imaginable. He spent a period of his life drooling whenever he came in contact with someone (whifch made it a little hard to pet him), and he was going bald in places for a few years... Both habits were fixed by the end. Throughout all this, he was still a pretty cute guy, kinda. Put like Chuck Jones said, it's the personality that makes a cat. Sparky sure had that.
Alas, one day he just decided he was ready to go, and spent three full days on the couch without moving, and so the parents took him to the vet for the big sleep. He wasn't quite right, but he still seemed like a happy guy who had a good life. Bye, Sparky!