Unfortunately, pets can’t stay with us forever. Here’s our virtual pet cemetery, where we remember our furry little companions who have passed from this realm to the next.

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The Cat (2001–2018)

Quite possibly the neediest and loudest mammal in history, The Cat (who went by the name Shadow) began life as a quiet little homeless runt. When The Wife and I returned from our honeymoon, she and her two siblings had taken up residence outside our first apartment. We couldn’t take in all three and the other two seemed to ignore the little one, so we took her polydactyl brother and sister to the local SPCA and kept The Cat for ourselves.

She quickly latched onto us as her new parents and was our faithful and loving companion over the next 17 years as we moved across the country multiple times and added a pair of little humans and one big dog to the household. She was happiest in someone’s lap or sitting near a window, and she never hesitated to meow incessantly until she received the attention she craved.

The Cat was also unendingly patient and never fussed about being constantly carried, babied, and basically manhandled throughout The Daughter’s toddler years. She didn’t care much for traditional feline delicacies, but never turned down an apple, black olive, or french fry.

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The Dog (2002-2016, adopted 2007)

We adopted The Dog from a greyhound rescue organization just one week before discovering that we had a second human on the way. The omega pup in a litter of eight, she never raced competitively and apparently was employed as a training companion for her faster, more assertive siblings. Her registered name was Wishiwasamonster, but since that’s terrible, the adoption folks referred to her as Moncita. We went with that as well, but usually just called her Cheetah or Cheech.

Although she slowed down considerably in her later years, The Dog was still pretty darn quick for a non-racer when we first got her. Her idea of a perfect day was doing a several minutes of blazingly fast donuts in our backyard and then settling in for 23+ hours of sleeping on the couch.

The Dog wasn’t a genius by any stretch of the imagination, but she was gentle and sweet. She loved us all, but I was clearly her human. She spent countless hours at my side, following me around the house or cuddling up with me on the couch. She also maintained subtly passive-aggressive relationships with The Cat and The Daughter, both of whom she clearly saw as just a peg or two lower than her in the pack hierarchy. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her and miss her dearly.

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The Cat II (2010ish-2019, adopted 2018)

Our second cat, Francesca (or Frankie), was adopted from the San Francisco SPCA. We didn’t know anything about her life up until that point, but there were a lot of indicators, both physical and behavioral, that it was probably pretty rough.

She lived exclusively downstairs in our master bedroom because the stress of being upstairs was just too much for her. Most of her time was spent on our bed or in our large walk-in closet, particularly in a drawer that she adopted as her safe spot. Every time I’d go down there, I’d pull drawer all the way out and rub her belly until she’d had enough, at which point she’d half-heartedly bite me to get the point across. She clearly wanted to be loved, but she just couldn’t bring herself to drop her guard and truly trust any human.

We only had The Cat II for less than year before she passed away due to kidney failure. I wish that we had been able to coax her out of her shell a little bit more, but I’m thankful that we were able to give her safe and nurturing space for that final span of her life.

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The Hamster (2017-2019)

Cookie the Roborovski dwarf hamster was small in stature but gigantic in terms of personality. He bonded quickly with The Daughter and the two of them were generally getting into one bit of mischief or another pretty much constantly.

The Hamster’s favorite activity was running as fast as he could on his horizontal wheel and then stopping suddenly so that he was thrown all the way across his tiny terrarium home. He was a weird little dude.