Remembering Sherpa the cat

Our Himalayan cat Sherpa died this morning. He was 13½ years old.
He had been suffering from kidney disease, which apparently is common with Himalayans.
We adopted him from a breeder in Southern California when we lived there. He moved with us to Chicago, Connecticut and eventually D.C.
He was a beautiful cat with pale blue eyes and long cottony soft fur with subtle tiger stripes. Technically he was a seal lynx point Himalayan. He was born May 28, 2001, in Torrance, Calif., to father PC Dreambear and mother Azure-Puff.
He was my home office companion, a gentle family pet and a good mouser.
He liked to be pampered with a nice brushing and to drink fresh water from the bathtub faucet. He was pretty independent and didn’t much like being held. But he liked lying around with us in the living room, rec room, bedrooms, etc.
He liked the outdoors, but mostly from the comfort of the backyard screen porch or the front step. In his later years, he never strayed outside the yard and kept close to the house.
When he was young, I often had to search for him in the neighbors’ yards at night.
He was a sweet cat and will be missed.
He was preceded in death by his aunt, Leah. She died on July 23, 2007, in Wilmette, Ill.

Photo: Sherpa in Vienna, Va., in March 2013.