Sad Simone News

My favorite picture of Sim's glamazing orangeness

It’s been a tough couple of days, friends. I’m taking a short break before covering Fashion Week because yesterday I had to put my wonderful cat Simone to sleep at the age of 8 and a half. We found out she had cancer and had deteriorated shockingly quickly in the span of a few days.

Sim being compact

Sim being long!

She lived with my good friends Tamar and Matt in the last two years of her life, which in and of itself was devastating to me. Her brother Ramon got very sick and had to be put down almost three years ago and in the year that followed, Simone’s mourning didn’t let up even for a second. She went on a hunger strike, cried constantly and was miserable. Rather than see her live in pain long days by herself while I (or my roommate Carrie, at the time) was at work, I set to work on doing a shiddach for Sim, Yente-style. She couldn’t be set up with just any cat—she needed a male cat, a surrogate brother. He had to be big. It had to be a Garfield/Nermal dynamic: He had to allow her to have the spotlight she always needed. She was stunningly affectionate and won the hearts even of people who hated cats. (Even those who disturbingly tell you with breathless carelessness how much they despise felines upon your telling them you have them. I’m always suspicious of those people. Not because they don’t have a right not to like whatever pets they choose. Because their brazen disclosure after they know you have such a pet displays a clear lack of sensitivity most people keep under wraps until you know them better. I don’t love a couple breeds of dogs, ferrets, snakes--though I do love most animals. I would never tell someone who has one. But I digress.) Tamar’s Rory had the relaxed, menschy vibe, the kind spirit and when he lounges, he channels a ‘70s Burt Reynolds circa the bearskin rug era. Rory was perfect, as were Tamar and Matt. They were so good to her. I was initially distraught after dropping her off at their apartment in Brooklyn after having her with me for seven years. I was now, essentially, out two pets. I hadn’t raised Simone to be so co-dependent on boys. But she had never been alone and was not, evidently, going to be anytime soon. I would visit her every couple of weeks and she seemed so much happier there. She gained back some weight. She never cried. She got along well with Rory. I joked that all the cool people were moving to Brooklyn.

More Sim being long

Simone Dior Katz was a delicate star. She was uniformly excellent at being a pet (and everything else she did). Tamar and I would joke that she was so busy being orange. She was named after Simone de Beauvoir (while her brother Ramon was named after a hilarious character in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion). Her middle name spawned from this article I wrote. I never did that thing other pet owners do when they refer to themselves as their pet's mother/father. Simone and I were friends, roommates. She was high maintenance—she loved air conditioning, ice water, organic dry food. She walked like a model in elegance and dignity. She snuggled up to perfect strangers at the apartment--the superintendent, the cleaning lady. She was a petite cat that could be unbelievably long or efficiently compact. She had so many remarkable qualities that Carrie and I compiled a list at one point and would enumerate them to anyone who showed an interest in her. They are (because I know you were wondering): 1. She was cuddly 2. She was fastidious about cleanliness 3. Her very rare muted orange coloring 4. Two-tone cheeks 5. You could always catch her 6. She let you hold her like a baby 7. She was a self-petting pet 8. She was an IT professional—She loved to join you while you worked on a laptop 9. She made her own toys 10. She could open doors without opposable thumbs 11. She preferred bottled water 12. She was an acrobat.

Sim doing a typical Sim pose

My fear that she, like a widow, couldn’t be separated for long without her brother unfortunately became a reality. While Ramon had many health problems, she was, until the very end, the very portrait of health and I’m so shocked that she didn’t have as long a run as I’d anticipated with us. I miss her already, but am happy she was reunited with Ramon.

Simone with the love of her life Ramon, circa 2007

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