Versace, we all noticed, had been spending a lot of time on the litter box.

Too much time.

Grumbling about the 1001 other things on my to-do list, but knowing that urinary tract infections can be serious problems for neutered males, I grudgingly took him to the vet. She said it was a digestive problem and prescribed some medication. I took Versace back home in the baby blue carrier that matched his eyes, certain that he’d be back to his old self by the end of the week.

The medicine didn’t work.

With a growing sense of alarm, I drove him to the emergency vet, who took an X-ray. The films showed bad things, the kind you don’t want to see in your three year-old cat. The only possible solution was a difficult and drastic surgery that wasn’t guaranteed to address the problem. Other vets were called, including the local expert. All agreed there were no good answers.

And then there was Versace’s sudden, unexplained weight loss, 3 pounds in the last month. A huge teddy bear of a cat who weighs sixteen pounds has a little weight to lose, but 3 pounds was nearly twenty percent of his entire body weight.

Twenty percent, gone. In less than a month.

The writing on the wall became clear, even to me.

I took him back home and told the kids. Broke their little hearts. We spent a last night loving him and remembering. In the morning I returned him to the vet, where the lovely tech said that I’d brought Versace back so we could give him his wings, and I lost it.

His ending was relaxed and peaceful, with me petting him and telling him what a wonderful cat he’d been and him purring.

Here’s what we miss about Versace:

• His laid-back, even keel disposition;
• His lengthy, expressive, high-pitched meows;
• The way he opened doors by jumping up on his hind legs and pressing the door with his front paws;
• The way he always tried to sneak into the bedroom, where cats aren’t allowed;
• The unconditional love he gave us.

Here’s that poem again, the one my father sent us earlier in the year when we gave Hobbes his wings. This time it’s for Versace: