Sinbad

Dear Dan,

I was talking with mom about you and Sinbad. Sinner was a big, smelly, male cat. He started as a cute kitten and then it all went horribly wrong.

Not really. Sinner was a fun cat. He used to sleep on my feet but he often slept on top of your pillow, right against your head. Occasionally he would lay in such a way to give you the full effect of his smelly cat self.

Sinbad also liked to sleep at the edge of the stairs. You wore a knitted cap in the winter. As you would walk down the stairs and Sinner was sleeping on the edge, he'd reach out and snatch that cap right off your head. There you were - no cap. There he was - curled around it.

Remember how he used to jump up on the town layout? He'd jump up and lay down in the middle of a street, wiping out everything in his path. We made believe he was a monster like Godzilla or Koronus.

And the train layout? Sometimes the train would go into the tunnel and not come out until the tunnel was disconnected and upended. Then out came a cat, followed by a train!

One night Sinbad went out during a bad snowstorm and he never came home. I didn't find out until years later that you and Fifinella found him dead at the back of the house. I guess he tried to come home but got bogged down in the snow. You didn't want me to know. You could be so sweet at times.