Remembering Sprite

[Content warning: Sad memorial post for my cat passing away, along with many, many nostalgic pictures]

A month ago, our second cat, Sprite, passed away due to chronic kidney disease (2008-2025). 😿 Now I'm grieving both cats passing away within a few months of each other (previously, Remembering Pixel), making the house feel eerily quiet for the first time in 17 years. As I did with Pixel, I want to post memories of the joy, fun, silliness, and cuteness Sprite brought into our lives.

I sadly can quote the same thing I wrote in Pixel's remembrance post:

"Looking at old pictures and videos, besides remembering how handsome he was, and what a feisty, playful cat he was, I also kept thinking, "I can't believe he's gone, and these pictures and videos are all I have left to remember him by," and a smallish part of me is still in denial, thinking, "he's not gone, he's just not here." It'll take me a while to come to terms with everything, especially having been his caretaker during his illness for so long. 😩 😢"

It's only been a month, but it also has felt longer. I wanted to remember Sprite now, both out of respect for his presence in our lives, but also before my brain, in its efforts to protect me from deep sadness, starts to forget the little details of Sprite's daily life with us.

I will again quote a little bit of Pixel's post here, since we adopted these brothers together:

Going Back to the Beginning

We adopted both Pixel and Sprite as kittens from an adoption agency that had adoption events at Petco in Naperville.

We saw them late one evening, when the adoption agency was gone for the night, and were concerned they might get adopted out from under us, but luckily we got to Petco early the next day and completed the adoption process.

Of course both kittens were playful and curious while exploring their new home, but Sprite was more chill and/or shy, while Pixel was a bit more rambunctious in walking around and playing.

At first, we confined them to the morning room since you're supposed to slowly introduce new cats to a house instead of letting them run around all over.

And here is my first capture of one of Sprite's signature poses, well, I guess 2 poses in 1: the "inappropriate" or "catspreading" pose, and the face or head hug pose. 😆

Since they were smol kittens, the gate we got kinda worked to keep them in the morning room initially, but eventually they got tired of being stuck in one room and wanted to see where kept going off to!

And yes, once they got out, they had the run of the place. 🙂

The kittens didn't stay kittens for very long. And while Pixel had his brand of ridiculousness, Sprite had his own brand, which a lot of the time was looking smug. 😸

Sprite perfected the disaffected teenager look by deploying the "Sprite arm":

We even have a couple "double Sprite arms" here. 😀

We often told Sprite, "don't give me that smug look!" I was amused to find this picture I posted to Snapchat long ago:

Sprite also gave a mean side eye.

On the other end of the spectrum, he could make himself look real derpy during the many times he faceplanted while sleeping. 😆

Whenever I see cats faceplanting in the game Neko Atsume 2, I am reminded of Sprite. 🥹

As I mentioned before, from a kitten, he had this way of laying down where he hugged his face. It was silly.

And while we're on the subject of laying down funny, here's Sprite "catspreading". 😸

Sprite sometimes had some real Maru (sadly he passed away recently also 😿) vibes going where, "if he fits, he sits".

At the beginning of the pandemic when we had to work from home, Sprite was a near-constant companion in my home office. He was always wanting to sleep behind my laptop. But he sometimes did this in the beforetimes, too.

Almost without fail, when I'd open my office window, he would come running so he could peek outside to see and smell what he could (there are lots of neighborhood cats around, some of whom have come into our backyard).

While we would call Pixel the "model kitty", Sprite was also a handsome boy and a photographic subject I used often. His face was so expressive, but I found it most hilarious when he had his "alert!" face on... I can just hear the Metal Gear Solid alert sound when I look at these. 😆

He was also a great subject for more artsy shots.

I'm so sad that two of my muses are gone now that he and Pixel have passed. 😢

Some Last Random Ramblings

Sprite was a really smart kitty. When we trained them to do tricks, Sprite caught on pretty quickly (Pixel was decent at them, but sometimes needed a little more training). Besides the easy tricks of sitting and laying down, he could shake and high-five. 🙌 And since he sometimes booped us on the nose, like when he wanted something, we trained him to do that when we asked him to. I have a video on IG of this somewhere. 😁 He would sometimes give himself a challenge while playing by positioning a toy under tables and reaching around the legs to bat at them. 🙂 And although he could be a troublemaker sometimes, he knew when not to do something we told him not to do.

When Pixel was sick, Sprite seemed as strong as an ox. But after Pixel passed, I feel like Sprite missed his brother so much that he didn't have the strength to fight the progression of his chronic kidney disease. He was fine for about a month after Pixel was gone, but after that his appetite disappeared, and we found out his kidney disease was in the late stage. He soldiered on for a little while longer, but we knew there wasn't anything we could do to improve his kidney function.

He was so patient and brave when we had to start him on subcutaneous fluids to help flush out his kidneys. We were lucky that he adapted to the routine so quickly and didn't fight us. He seemed more chill about it than we were most of the time! 🥹 We did the best we could for him, but knew it was time to say goodbye on December 21st, 2025. And like I said, I can't believe it's only been a month, because the house has felt like it's been missing something for a while in his (and Pixel's) absence. I hope Sprite and Pixel are comfortable and playing together again now.