Zweibel died today. While this was not totally unexpected (his health had been in decline since acutely manifesting hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in September), it is still shocking to our family, coming as it does at the beginning of the holiday vacation. His passing was not as painless as we would have wished, but he did not suffer for very long at all, and he died in the arms of my lovely wife, his favorite person in the world.
In sharing our lives with this unique animal for the past seven years, we have found that he was never a cat that provoked a tepid response from those who met him. People either loved him on first sight, or couldn't really wrap their heads around what, exactly, a hairless cat could be. But whatever they felt, they always understood that he was a true one-of-a-kind, and that there would never be another one quite like him. And there won't be.
Good night, Onion Cat. We thank you for living your life with us, and providing us with so much unforgettable joy and love. While we are not the type to put any stock in notions of an afterlife, we do hope that should we be wrong, you are someplace warm and snuggly.