Neelix was the first addition to a shared family for Ray and I. The two of us had met on February 1, 1998. He was a big fan of cats, and living in an apartment, I knew I wanted to have something a little more than my 20 gallon fish tank for pets. Ray talked me into the possibility in March.

At about that time, a guy (Louie) who was working as a cook at the restaurant I was at told me a good friend of his that he worked at the prison with had kittens she was looking to give away. As an aside, he was moonlighting with us since he worked full-time in intake at our state's primary prison.

Louie helped me make arrangements to go see the small group of kittens so I could pick one out, and it was a quick match for Neelix and me. I sat right down on the floor near the kittens while the owner left me alone with them. The little guy stumbled right over and settled in my lap, happy as can be. There was no question which of them was coming home with me.

In case you are curious about his name, it is taken from a character on Star Trek: Voyager that he reminded me of. The character is an alien from the other side of the galaxy with similar coloring and markings. They also shared a nice friendly and outgoing natures so the name really fit. The above is a pciture I took of him on my couch shortly after he came home with me.

Neelix actually suffered from weight issues. For a short time, he was worried the other cats we had would eat all the food so he stopped that from happening by doing it himself! As a result, he ballooned up when he was about 3 years old. He ended up losing weight when we changed food brands. I guess the new stuff was just not as tasty.

The last few days, he has been in a bit of a funk. It is not unusual for the cats to disappear for a few days ... even him, who was a housecat. He seemed to be doing that. Maybe he just needed a break since there were two humans, two dogs (Belle and Jolie loved to chase him around), and the meanest b**** of a cat in the house always pestering him.

Well, this morning, I was doing my workout and was pushing my aerobic step back in place when I noticed that he was all spread out, sleeping under the coffee table. I pet him a little bit, and soemthing seemed off so I walked around the table to see he from the front. Well, his eyes were open so I knew he wasn't just sleeping. I felt really bad about it. In a way, he had always been a symbol of our relationship because he has pretty much been around since the beginning. Heck, he was our very first furrykid! And he was the most dog-like and friendly cat I had ever met.

We ended up taking him out back to give him his own personal burial in the backyard, and the eeriest thing in the world happened. Just when Ray started putting the dirt over the whole, Belle and Jolie ended up howling from inside the house. They kept on and on until we had finished filling in the whole. It was almost like they were singing a funeral dirge. It really had the tears bubbling up for me.

Well, I know that he has gone to that big scratching post int he sky, but it will be weird not having him around. He was always sneaking into the cat-free zones to be close to us when we were there. We have already noticed that Jolie, who was really friendly with him, keeps walking around the house looking for her little, orange buddy. He will definitely leave a hole in our family.