At first I put off writing about this because I was holding out hope that he’d come back. But it’s been four months since we last saw JJ T. Cat, and I stopped holding out hope sometime over the summer.

I didn’t expect him to be around for too many more year. He was 16 years old and that’s pretty old for a cat. But he was in good health.

He’d been a mostly indoor cat since Marsha passed away in March, and he had transformed from a stand-offish guy into a small, furry dream cat. And then one evening he went outside, and he never came back in. We never found a trace of him.

Our new neighborhood has a bit more wildlife than our old one did, and I’m afraid something caught him by surprise. Whatever happened, I pray that it was quick.

He could be a difficult guy, but in his last few months he was so loving. I’m glad we had such good memories of him at the end.