MY CAT IS DEAD. I AM SAD.

We thought YODA ran away on Friday night while people were over for a BBQ and we searched for the last couple days. Last night I woke up around 1am and had a feeling. I put my headlamp on and walked through the basement. I found him peacefully curled up in Bwindi's old kennel in the far back room. It looked like he was just sleeping.

So, here are the highlights and low-lights of Yoda's life and why we loved him:

- We rescued him the Humane Society in 1999. We originally picked out a different cat, but they messed up and sent the wrong one to the vet. When Nora went to pick up the cat he wasn't there so she was encouraged to look at this other stray. They told us his name was Daryl. He was so ugly that he was cute. We renamed him Yoda because of his old-man chin, squished face and goopy eyes. We got Yoda as a Valentine's Day present to each other and he lived with us for 7 1/2 years.
- Around 2001, his deaf and blind 23 year-old cousin, Chin, came to live with us. Yoda would look on with disdain as Chin would get lost in the corner and cry out like a cow. We were sort of relieved when Chin died. Yoda was lucky he went out while he was still hot and the people loved him.
-When our dog Bwindi came to live with us, she and Yoda became fast friends. We would often catch Bwindi giving Yoda a once over with a couple good licks. Bwindi was clawed by a cat while she was young, but she loved Yoda. All weekend Bwindi just wasn't herself - sad and hopeless - now we know why.
- When we won our life-size Yoda replica from Blockbuster, Nora grabbed Yoda and ran him down to the store. The clerk yelled at her because she wasn't allowed to bring animals into the store. She yelled back at him that, "THIS is the real Yoda!"
- Yoda was a horrible mouse hunter and just never had the killer instinct. Bwindi would patiently work with Yoda to bring down the occasional bat and mouse that made it into the house.

Yoda was a great cat for us and fit this little Faber family well. He is now buried on Livingston Ave where he spent his best years. We will really miss you little guy.