Requiescat In Pace (1998-2015)
It is with a very heavy heart I write today, as we have lost a beloved member of our editorial staff here at ChrisWeigant.com headquarters. Here she is in happier times, supervising the writing process.
One thing she valued above all else was her privacy and her anonymity. So, following her last request, she shall only be known here under the nom de plume "Kitty Weigant, Editor-In-Chief."
In the beginning of this website, she almost didn't get the job. Her audition, as it were, was to pose for a "grumpy cat" photo. I took almost a dozen, but she looked too sweet in almost all of them. I did catch her when she just woke up, and got about as grumpy a photo as I could.
But in the end I just found a random grumpy cat photo online and used it for the site's banner instead (I should mention this was long before the cultural phenomenon of "Grumpy Cat").
But Kitty soon settled in to her editorial duties, such as whether to type a column or not that particular day.
She was always as helpful as could be around the office, whether it was lending a paw in the mail room...
Or helping out with the day's errands.
She really had the most fun supervising our annual pumpkin carving, though. [You can tell what year this was by the nightmarish "President Palin" Jack O'Lantern.]
Eventually, she demanded her own kitty-sized pumpkins to carve, after we had major creative differences, one year.
Aside from her work, the holiday she most loved was Christmas. She moved in with us in December of 1998 (when she was roughly six weeks old), and so Christmas was always a joyful time for her.
She was very helpful in decorating the tree, principally by smacking any ornaments hung below the two-foot line clear across the room. Eventually, we gave up and conceded the lower tree to nothing but balsa-wood, unbreakable, kitty-proof ornaments.
She was also very helpful in keeping an eye on Santa, just to make sure he didn't get up to any mischief. [Note: Kitty thought long and hard about this one, but in the end decided not to attempt that jump....]
Christmas morning meant lots of presents, and lots of excitement, but eventually Kitty would calm down enough to just sit and watch the Yule log on television.
We will miss Kitty enormously here at ChrisWeigant.com. She was the brightest star in our universe. Kitty has now gone to the great catnip patch in the sky, where her dreams of being a tiger can come true whenever she wants.
She's in a better place now, where the gophers are all stupid and the birds all fly slow and low. We will never forget her, and we must apologize for not being able to write a proper column today, as we grieve. As a general rule, we hate blogs and social media where everyday life seems to be the only thing worth discussing, and have kept to a strict policy of almost never letting our own lives intrude on the writing here. However, since Kitty was the highest rank of our editorial staff here, we simply had to make an exception.
So long, Kitty. You will be missed. No one will ever be able to take your place. We will love you always.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Sorry to hear this Chris. I have cats and dogs and know how it feels. Great photos.
Paula -
Thanks for the kind thoughts. It has been a pretty rough time for us...
-CW
I am sorry to hear of the loss....
I know how it feels. A very nice bottle of well aged California's finest tends to help for a few hours.
I always find it amazing that a dead human fails to hit me like the passing of a dear longtime companion.
So sorry to hear Kitty Weigant, Editor-In-Chief has passed away. My own privacy loving feline staff, The Grand Duchess of Kibble, and Lord Chumly also offer condolences and celebrate nine lives which were clearly well lived and well appreciated.
goode trickle -
That may be a very nice sixpack of California's finest pale ale, but I do appreciate the kind thought.
TheStig -
Hug Lord Chumly and the Duchess tight, and tell them how much you love them. Meow!
-CW
I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty. We lost ours earlier this year and it was rough. She was a beautiful cat!
Chris,
I think your tribute to KW is a proper column. I'm glad you gave her a happy life.
Dawn -
Thanks, everyone said she was a pretty kitty. I'm sorry to hear about your loss, too.
John From Censornati -
She was born a stray, with a feral mother. We rescued her from the shelter, and were extremely lucky in our choice. She was the best behaved cat I've ever met. She had a much longer, and happier life than she would have elsewise, which is indeed a comforting thought.
-CW
We grieve with thee....
M & B
CW
The Duchess has reminded me that post 4 was technically a Document of State requiring a full listing of titles and awards. Here goes ( sigh)....
Grand Duchess of Kibble, The Downton Tabby, Defender of the Comfy Chair By Fireplace, Destroyer of Vermin, Order of the Well Chewed Bird.
Lord Chumly of Cottingweld.
For when you get back on the horse:
Department of mixed bag: Ohio roundly rejected legal pot, but overwhelmingly approved redistricting reform favoring compact boundaries.....after the next US census.
@CW,
my condolences for your loss
JL
Loss and possession, death and life are one,
There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.
~Hilaire Belloc
My deepest sympathies on the passing of Kitty. What a beautiful pussycat she was and so very much loved by her human family and CW.com staff.
Hey CW
She was a wise kitty to value her anonymity and privacy.
16 years is indeed a lot of quality living.
A
To everyone -
My wife and I thank you all for all your kind words.
You may think it overstating the case, but Kitty was indeed a big part of the editorial process. Many days (far too many to count), she would wander in just after I had finished banging out a column (I learned on a manual typerwriter, and hit the keys pretty hard, so she rarely did this while I was typing, due to the noise), she'd jump up on the desk and worm her way onto my lap. She would demand I pet her, which I would during the time I reviewed and edited the day's column.
Without her presence to calm me, these columns would have been a lot more vicious, in many cases. It's hard not to decide "I went too far, there" when you have a purring cat on your lap, to put this another way.
She also decided ties in all our contests, as we'd take one toy and name it Contestant A, another one Contestant B, and toss them both out. Whichever one she went for won.
I keep looking around for her to be there. Time may heal these types of loss, but it hasn't been long enough yet for me.
Again, thanks to everyone for the kind words. She led a long, happy, healthy life and that's what is most important.
-CW
Chris,
"I keep looking around for her to be there. Time may heal these types of loss, but it hasn't been long enough yet for me."
I know what you mean. I lost my 30 year old parrot in March. I'd had him since he was a couple of months old. It took me 3 months to get around to donating his cage to a rescue organization and about six months to get over the urge to speak to him every time I walked past his spot. I also lost my 15 year old dog in early October, but there's a new arrival at the dog shelter where I volunteer and I want to bring her home. She's a really great dog and she'd already been abandoned at a rural shelter twice and come within a day of being euthanized before our no-kill shelter took her in.
"My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today."
A truly beautiful tribute, Chris ...
so sorry for your loss!