Eddie was my best friend. He and Gizmo helped me through a difficult time in my life, and having lived (and slept) with them almost every day for so many years it’s difficult for me to comprehend that they’re both gone. Allegra’s cat Miss Margot is sleeping with me now, which is a comfort. She snores like a banshee, but so did the boys, so I sleep right through it.
Eddie’s proper name was Edgar, after Edgar Allen Poe. We got him with his tiny sister, Penguin, in 1997. We had to give Penguin away, for reasons I won’t get into here. After that, Eddie wandered the house howling softly, presumably looking for her. So we got Gizmo to keep him company.
Eddie had a deep bass purr. He loved to have his fur rubbed the wrong way. When we first got him, he had one white whisker, which we decided was his Indian name. That whisker was replaced by a black one for most of his life, until quite recently, when the white one grew back and he became One White Whisker again. Eddie was a tubby cat most of his life, which made his skinniness toward the end particularly sad. I miss you, buddy.