Farewell Felix

Farewell to one of the most amazing cats ever. Felix passed away at about 5 am this morning, in our arms, in one of his favorite places, on our pillows. He succumbed to a heart disease that is common to Maine Coons, but we had a long time to say farewell, which, it turns out, does not make the saying of goodbye easier in the least. Felix was diagnosed last August the 2nd, and lived just over a year with his illness, which was a great gift for us, and a surprise to vets, since their best prognosis was five months. We will miss him so very much.
We buried Felix on our land today, it was a great joy to us that he made it to Maine!! After all, it is the land of his very distant ancestors. Felix was almost eight years old, and we think that his heart wore out because he was so loving with it that it couldn't help but be overloaded by all the work he was giving it! Felix will be remembered for having found and adopted us instead of the other way around, for his wonderful habit of hugging, for sitting at the edge of the tub and demanding sips of water during every shower, for stealing pillows and sleeping on them just as we humans do, for making eye contact and chirping, sleeping upside down in the most ridiculous poses, eating all the edges off his "x" shaped food and leaving the centers, liking his water warm or tepid but never cold, only liking x-shaped foods till the very end of his days, when he discovered a great love for an O shaped food, swatting the food out of the bowl and then patrolling the kitchen floor for all the swipings, teaching little Penny to use the cat box when she was no bigger than my hand (that's significantly smaller than Shawn's hand), and being SO LOVING. We also recognize his courage and stamina: surviving his first episode of acute heart failure, being pronounced essentially gone, and then, to everyone's amazement, including a seasoned vet and a host of techs, starting to purr when he heard our voices saying farewell at the vet's mini ER, and just being so loving that it's impossible to say all the reasons we loved this fabulous cat. Truly, we will never forget our cute little Fat Boy. We are so glad that he was able to die at home, in our arms, and with what seemed to us to be minimal difficulties. He loved the outdoors and was a cat after our own heart in that he loved more than anything to be in a garden. What a gem!
Felix we buried this morning on our land in Belfast, in between three old apple trees that we'll be able to see from the living room. Not a rock and not a root, the whole two feet down into the good earth. We brought the stone from Moonie's burial in Point Roberts to remember both of them with and will miss them so much! Home's not the same without him. But loving, even loving and losing, is the greatest gift to us mere mortals that we will likely ever be lucky enough to receive. Till then, Felix, we'll be seeing you.