My wife rescued Jake and his brother, Elwood, from a cardboard box in which they’d been thrown away as newborn kittens. With their eyes barely open, we bottle-fed them. Jake turned into a real fireball—a “wild boy” according to our vet—who never walked anywhere when he could run instead. With a mind of his own, we gave up trying to discipline him (his two favorite games were burrowing under rugs and shredding toilet paper)…not a hard thing to do, though: Jake was too wonderful to ever get angry with. He was Judith’s special friend and took enormous pleasure in stretching out in her lap while she watched TV and rubbed his tummy.

Jake was only 4 1/2 when he passed away. Like everything else, it happened at top speed. He’d come flying in through his cat door…and then simply died. One moment he was there…and the next he was not. We have no idea what happened. All anyone can imagine is that his poor little heart simply gave out. We miss him very much.