Our avid reader, friend, and cat sitting customer, Crystal, wrote this tribute to two cool cats, Sox and Linus!

There is a meme that circulates on Facebook from time to time that says, "Everyone thinks they have the best dog. And they are right." While it speaks of dogs, I think we all can feel that it captures how much we love our pets, no matter what the species. Our dogs, cats, birds, rodents, equines and so on; our own best ones ever. I know that I've been blessed to have the "best" cat, two of whom I'd like to tell you all a bit about, Sox and Linus.

I found Sox in a garbage dumpster in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in August 1993. She was just a tiny kitten, estimated to be about 6 weeks old. A neighbor helped me learn how to take care of her. I had never had a kitten before, and my only experience with cats had been a mostly outdoor cat who sort of lived with us when I was a kid in Tennessee. I never felt right about that poor cat having to live outside, coming home all beat up, so I knew I was going to do everything differently with Sox. She became my indoor kitty, learning how to be a cat right alongside me as I learned how to be a cat mom.

Sox loved wet food, Pop Tart filling, soft egg yolks, and steamed green peas.  Her favorite toy was a wadded-up ball of paper, which she would chase and bring back to me!! She believed toilet paper belonged on the bathroom floor, not on the roll, and she could unwind it at nearly light speed. She enjoyed climbing the curtains, lying in wait on the curtain rod, and jumping onto my head or shoulders when I was close enough for a successful ambush.

Sox did not like to be picked up, but she would sit near me, and if the planets were aligned properly, she might lean against my leg. Eventually, she would sit on my lap, but that generally coincided with cold weather. (Hmmm.) She was independent and lived life according to her own terms. I let her be the cat she wanted to be and was happy to share life with her.

Sox and I moved from New Mexico to New York, where I met my husband. She couldn't quite figure out who he was, why he kept showing up at our apartment, and why he even existed, but eventually, she grew to like him best as the primary human (seriously?!) I think it's because he generated more body heat in the winter. It's okay, I loved her no matter what.

Fast forward to May 2003. My husband and I were both commuting and working long days, so Sox, now almost 10 years old, was spending a lot of time alone. We came up with the genius idea that she needed a cat friend, so we went to an adoption event at a local farm animal feed store and came home with Linus, who was 9 weeks old. 

Sox had no use for him; he wanted to play with her. She basically ignored him during the first year of his life, but as he grew larger than her, he became aggressive toward her. We loved them both, so there was no way we were going to re-home either one of them. We ended up splitting our apartment into two halves, separated by a screened door (which we called the Berlin Wall), with Sox living on one side and Linus on the other. 

My husband and I split our time between the two...for the next 8 years! Eventually, as Linus figured out how to charge past us into “Sox Zone” whenever we opened the door, we changed to stacked baby gates, removing the middle one and stepping over the lower one to move between zones. 

Linus never realized he could jump the gate during this process. Instead, he spent his energy trying to tunnel under it by digging up the carpet, so we spent our energy trying to prevent that. Among the various strategies we used was a motion sensor air canister placed at floor level, so that whenever Linus got near the gate, the canister would release a burst of air to (in theory) scare him away. 

By this time, we were living in the Capital Region and Lori was our cat sitter. The air canister strategy didn't work on Linus, but it did give poor Lori a couple of near heart attacks before we eventually gave up. Linus turned it into a game once he figured out that he could use his paw to set off the motion sensor, empty the can, and then get back to the business of carpet removal.

Now at this point, you might think Linus was a total jerk, but he really wasn't. He was sweet, interactive, loved to be pick up, loved laps, loved meeting people, had the best purr. He was perfect, except for his psycho "must kill Sox" obsession. So, we let Sox be Sox, and Linus be Linus, in their own zones, as we navigated between the two for 8 years, both of them enriching our lives greatly, every day. 

Everyone thought it was a pretty weird way to live, but it worked for the four of us. We very much enjoyed life together, and sometimes Sox and Linus would sit a foot or so apart at the gates while we read or hung out with them. It's not what we envisioned when we initially brought Linus home, but it was our little family.

Sox passed away on May 15, 2012, from complications of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), just a couple of months short of her 19^th birthday. After a grieving period, we removed the gates and let Linus, who was now 9 years old, have full run of the house. 

He flourished in the years ahead, playing with his wand toy, climbing his cat tree and hanging out with us on the screened porch watching the bunnies, squirrels, birds and other critters. He never met food he didn't like. He loved spending time with Lori whenever we went on vacation; she loved him right back. 

He was full of love, always with us, sleeping with us every night, meowing back at us in conversation, following us from room to room. He had many nicknames: Woobie, Woobie Cat, Mr. Senor Woobie, Woobinator, Purrcy, Purrcival, PeePee Boy (urinary crystals situation), Crusty McCrusterson (dry skin situation), Toady (husband said he was my toady), and Toadenschtool, among others, most with a story behind them. I'm not sure he even knew his name was Linus.

Linus passed away, also from complications of CKD, on August 25, 2022. He was 19 years and 5 months old. We miss them both and still talk about them often, especially as their photos scroll through the digital photo frame in our living room. They are cool cats for so many reasons, but especially so for showing us how deep and individual and loving and wonderful cats are at every stage of their life. These beautiful little creatures who capture our hearts and share our lives. Sox and Linus will live on in our hearts and memories forever. 

(Special Note from Lori: Sox didn’t care for me, so I had to admire her from a distance while cat sitting. Linus had the most musical purr ever. Crystal has a super comfortable corduroy recliner that we would sit in … Linus on my lap, with his musical purr, always making me fall asleep. I can still hear his purr in my mind.)

SCRUFF (Spaying Capital Region Unowned Feral Felines) is a local Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR) organization for feral and stray cats. SCRUFF provides low-cost spay/neuter services for this unowned population of cats.

SCRUFF recently announced that to celebrate its 20th Anniversary, TNVR appointments will be free for the rest of 2026, thanks to the generosity of donors and careful stewardship of SCRUFF's resources.

Free appointments are subject to appointment availability and program funding.

Donations are always welcome, but never required. For those who wish to support SCRUFF's mission, contributions of any amount help offset the cost of spay/neuter surgery, vaccinations, and other care provided to community cats.

Please contact SCRUFF at 518-526-3372 or email [email protected]. SCRUFF’s web site is scruffcats.org.

In the meantime, Kitten Angels is still offering their program for pet cats:

Click here to sign up for the Kitten Angels program.

Upstate Spay and Neuter Services returns to East Greenbush on July 15. This is organized through Operaton Snip in Troy, so you won’t find this event on the Upstate schedule.

You can bring pet or un-owned cats (like cats you catch outside) for spay and neuter, FIV and FeLV testing, vaccinations, and flea treatment. Nails trims are included. Ear tipping is not required for un-owned cats — obviously suggested if you are releasing the cats back outside, but it’s nice to not do an ear tip if you catch a friendly cat that you want to find a home for.

(If you are not familiar with ear-tipping, please read https://bestfriends.org/pet-care-resources/ear-tipping-cats-what-it-and-why-its-done.)

Contact Operation Snip through Facebook Messenger for an appointment. Slots are limited. Basic Spay/Neuter starts at $90 per cat. Add-ons cost more (testing, flea treatment, etc).

I mentioned in a previous newsletter that I recently spent $75 at my local vet office to get one cat a rabies vaccination. Free is a great deal! If you live in Rensselaer County and your cat is due, see if you can sign up for this clinic. Slots are limited!

In the last issue of Capital Purrspective I told you all about the capture and adoption of Garuda. While Garuda was still outside and visiting the feeding station, another cat became a regular. He was a large cat with white and gray tiger areas on his fur. A lot of the cat stories overlap in time, but I’ll try to not forget any of them as we work our way through this saga.

After Garuda moved indoors, one of the tenants of the property where I had moved the cat feeding area to asked me to move the feeding station and shelters out of the yard. He didn’t like seeing the wildlife that also came to feast, and was worried about those animals eating his summer garden. The landlord offered up another yard further down the block.

So, still grateful to have a space, my husband, Alan, and I moved the structures around the corner and down the block several buildings away. I was worried about losing the big cat (who will be named Alicanto, later) and any other cats that might be eating at the 2nd location, but the cats do seem to travel pretty far, so I hoped it would be ok.

The trail camera, now in the 3rd location, showed that the big cat found the new area, and I once again discovered the “curse of the trail camera.” There was another cat that looked a lot like the big white and tiger cat! I finally figured out that the bigger cat had sort of a square area of tiger patch on one of his front legs.

I tried for months to trap the big cat. A few other cats were caught in the meantime, but I’ll circle back to talk about them in future issues. My gut feeling was that the big cat was probably quite feral and wily. My expectation was to trap him, get him neutered, tested, vaccinated, and ear-tipped, and put him back outside.

It took 9 months, but I finally caught the big cat!

If you’ve been following along in past newsletter issues, you know that I try to trap a few days before a pre-set spay/neuter appointment. When I catch the cat, I put it into a cage in my garage, with weather-appropriate accommodations (heaters/blankets or fans). I cover the cage with sheets or blankets (again, depends on the weather), to help reduce their anxiety. And I always put a cat carrier in the cage, with the carrier door tied open to the cage. Feral cats will go into the carrier, and that makes it easier for me to transport them out of the cage later, and into a trap for the spay/neuter appointment.

We named the big cat “Alicanto,” which is another bird of mythology — our naming convention for the cats from this general location. (Started trapping there in January 2025; see Capital Purrspective Issue #1 for the beginning of the story!)

Alicanto was like Garuda, he never went into the cat carrier. He was big and looked rough — scratches and a sore on his nose, white fur was dirty — so I was super careful when I reached in with food and water, or to scoop his litter box.

One day when I opened the cage I heard a little, “mew.” It was Alicanto! Just like with Garuda, I very cautiously reached my hand out and he happily rubbed his face on my hand and insisted on getting petted! Not at all what I expected!

We followed our normal pattern of having Alicanto move indoors right after his surgery. It seemed like being indoors was a little scary for him at first, so he did hide. But, like so many others before him, he learned about toys and how to play. He loved lap time. He was a lover!

Alicanto did a few stints at the PetSmart adoption center. Such a good boy, but it did take him a while to find his home. I caught him in October 2025 and he was adopted in March 2026. I need to check up on how he is doing, he was adopted with another cat at the same time, so he has a new home and cat buddy!

Please send in any fun cat related license plates you see!