We lost another member of the family today. He was a senior citizen and his health deteriorated fast. Our little Californian cat, named Little Guy, passed away.

We rescued him from the streets near our first apartment, just a few months after we moved to L.A. He was a bit of a runt and had been abandoned to die. He had been taken from his mother too early and kneaded every blanket, carpet, couch and expensive item we had.

Our big guilt that we always laugh about was that he was covered in grease and dirt, from head to toe, when we brought him into our family. L.A. Mommy decided she had to give him a bath right away. He was a little orange and white whirling dervish and she just kept scrubbing and scrubbing his poor little gray tail. Until she realized it wasn’t going to come off… She felt so bad.

We tried to come up with names for him and couldn’t settle on anything. At the time, we also had a huge tabby cat, called Koko, who weight about 22 pounds. So, until we came up with a name, we kept calling him Little Guy. Compared to Koko, he was very little.

I’ll always have this great memory and mental image from that first year with our new cat. My wife came home from work, on Thanksgiving Day, and I was preparing the turkey in the kitchen. I had gone to the bathroom and was coming back out as she arrived. We both looked into the kitchen to see Koko licking the side of the turkey like it was a big popsicle.

And there, with both paws on either side of the turkey, and his head and most of his upper body shoved down into the ass-end, was Little Guy chomping away at the juicy turkey pieces-parts.

That was a little over 14 years ago, so he was about 72. Quite a long, healthy and safe life for the runt of the litter that was thrown out like yesterday’s trash.

Thank you, Little Guy. For the laughs, for the comfort, for the memories, and for being part of our family. We’ll away miss you and love you.