R.I.P. Spike

After a valiant 12-year battle with the 21st century, Vincenzo Giovanni Musso - aka Spike - passed away peacefully tonight. The day he saw this picture on my phone, just this past October, was the last time I heard him let out a real belly-laugh.

R.I.P. Spike
10/22/1914 - 4/30/2012

Don't you just love makeovers?

Well, maybe not this one. In response to Still Alive, as a Geminiacally typical "you think THAT's bad," I offer these before and after pix of Neko.

Ahh, Neko...we miss him.

Before
Neko at age 18 in 2003
After
Neko just prior to his stroke in 2007
Dig my stylin'
glasses, yo.
Don't blame me! He had to be shaved because
he just couldn't groom himself anymore!
Frankly, he was more like a zombie at this point anyway.

What you can't visualize in those still shots is just how spastic he became as he aged. He drooled and snarfled and fell down a lot. After the stroke, of course, he wasn't able to get back up again. He died at the ripe old age of 21-1/2. (And boy, was he ripe!)