This morning we laid Salvador to rest in the yard in a sunny place. He was my beloved companion of 15 years, dumpling thief, catnip fanatic, and router warmer, and I miss him terribly already.

He’s always had that haughty gaze, even as a kitten. He’s the one in front here.

We got Salvador and Serge right after Will and I were married. We had moved into No. 57 from an apartment downtown where we couldn’t have pets*, and I told Will that I wanted cats as soon as we could. Surrounded by boxes the morning after we moved in, he said to me, “Let’s get unpacked first, then we can get cats, ok?” He left that morning for work, I set a landspeed record for unpacking, and called on an ad in the paper about kittens free to a good home. Will came home, was astounded, and an hour later we picked up the boys.

If you’ve ever raided with me, you know Sal as the cat that was very old, who sat on the router that is very warm. And I’m sorry I disconnected, but wrapping a router in a fur coat, while comforting to the cat, is not necessarily good for the router. We eventually hung the router on the wall beside the desk, and for a few weeks Salvador  would stand on the desk and lean against it. Again, I’m really sorry about the d/c.

But I could never deny him. This is the cat who slept across my belly while I was pregnant and did the paw paw dance into the blankets. The cat who loved catnip so much he would steal it from the other cats. The cat who sat in my lap, stuck his cold little nose into the crook of my elbow and purred while I worked at my computer. The cat who sat with me the whole time I was too sick to get out of bed last February. Spiderplant eater and follower into the bathroom, intent watcher of rising bread dough, and sharer of my tea for a decade and a half. I told him over and over how he was My Favorite, and not to tell the other cats.**

In the grand scheme of things, his illness was short – about six weeks from when he stopped eating substantially to when the vet said he was too sick to treat. She told me that on Wednesday morning, and last night he went quietly, held by me and Will in our bed, snuggled in a towel. We laid him to rest in the front garden. I’m going to plant some catnip there this summer.

***

*Will had two cats when we first got together. When we moved to the apartment downtown, the petless one, his mom took in the cats. When we moved to No. 57, she hung up on him when he asked for them back. Apparently she had grown attached. The cats stayed with her and we continued to visit them regularly.
**He may or may not have told them.