Almost exactly four years. Four years that I was allowed to give this energetic, playful, paper-loving dream cat and eponymist of my domains a new home. At the beginning he had some problems to get used to the new home, but these problems disappeared completely when his brother Kalle came to live with me. The two were, although before seemingly hopelessly quarreled, THE team and made together the household unsafe (much to the chagrin of Louise). They raved, played and argued from time to time, as is so common among siblings.

Last week, unfortunately, this perfect world got cracks. Without notice, without any symptoms, Gizmo didn’t really want to eat that much anymore. But since he was otherwise completely fit and continued to do the things that a Gizmo just does, I thought nothing more of it. All cats have phases like this from time to time, when they are not gluttonous.

Over the weekend, however, he became sleepy, listless, and was quite bloated. The vet palpated a hardening, about 6 cm in size. This morning he was scheduled for surgery. When I got the call from the vet, my just healed world collapsed. A large tumor surrounded large parts of his intestine. It must have been developing completely unnoticed for months.

I decided with a heavy heart not to let Gizmo wake up again, so as not to torture him unnecessarily, just to maybe have a few more days with him. Gizmo, I will never forget your soft meowing and your loud purring, the cuddles (including a completely hairy and slobbered harem pants), your reaction speed when a treat bag rustled somewhere, just your whole being. We miss you so much and the pain is deep. Farewell, little cat man and please greet your old companions Findus, Minnie and Daphne from us :-(