Pepper

Our cat Sacci actually got better and is very lively, so we did not put him down. Unfortunately, our other cat Pepper got violently ill on Friday and stayed in a poor state all weekend. My mom took him today and the vet decided it would be best to put him to sleep.

He reached the ripe old age of 19, which is surely 100 in cat years. His favorite activity in his grumpy old age, after he got arthritis, was to lie down in doorways and growl and swat at people who walked by. Actually, he was the most affectionate cat I've had. Whenever you picked him up he'd go completely limp and let you cradle him like a baby. Sometimes he would crawl on people and try to nurse from them, purring and drooling while working his paws. He was a huge, muscular cat in his prime. He dominated the cats on our street.

My nickname for him was Peahopper.

Pepper as a kitten, wrestling with our old cat Tiger.