Tony has always been very reliable. I know that he will be at the back door every morning when I let Gus out, and I know that he'll be mewing at the front door everyday when I get home from work.

Unfortunately, for the past week, he hasn't been at either place. We found out from our neighbor that Tony was killed by a car last week.

It feels weird not having Tony around. I walked to the cat food section the other day by habit only to remember I don't need cat food anymore.

Of course, Tony was the type of pet who would not have approved of me being all sappy upon his passing. He was a really horrible cat, and he was proud of that. Zoe has scars to prove that he was tougher than dogs. He was also smarter than dogs, but then again, Gus and Zoe are idiots, so the competition wasn't very steep in our house.

The oddest thing about his passing is that we no longer have Sienna or Tony, the pets we started our marriage with. Right as we are starting a new phase in life, we've lost one of the main symbols in my mind of our first years together.

And now we are left with just Gus and Zoe. Gus, the lovable mutt who is pretty much just fluff and goodness, and Zoe, the Great Dane who daily spreads cheer and saliva, but mostly saliva. Our child is coming into a interesting family, and now that Tony has gone to that place in the sky where there is an endless supply of tuna, he or she is probably coming into a safer family as well.