The Passing of a King He was sweet tempered, protective, loyal, intelligent, comical, playful, gentle, a fierce fighter, deeply loving, patient, understanding, sensitive, proud, majestic, a warrior, stubborn and ornery. He bonded with me years ago, and became my closest friend and companion who could almost always coax me out of sad, angry, stressed or depressed moods. He could soothe my wounded feelings, and generally coax a laugh or smile from me when no one else could. I will always feel that the spirit which lived in him was an angelic one. There is no other way I can describe what I felt every time I looked into his eyes. He was my cat. His name was Bogus Kahn and he lived up to his name. Bogus stood about 9 to 10 inches tall(this is my best guess since I never actually measured his height) and measured about 24 inches from head to tail when full grown. He was a big cat with thick chest muscles and broad powerful hindquarters. He was jet black with 4 white socks and a large snow white patch on his chest, and another large patch on his underbelly. He had the most beautiful sparkling iridescent eyes, which I have never seen in any other cat in my life. His fur was incredibly soft, thick and silky to the touch, so much so that it was sheer delight to pet him. He had the sweetest high pitched cry which could deepen into the most frightening low pitched roar you could ever imagine when angry or was issuing a challenge to another cat or any other predator for that matter. Bobcat, hootowl, it didn't matter to him. He had long oversize,interlocking incisers that could bite deeply into his opponent. He had a fighting maneuver that Thom and I named the "flipflop" meaning that when he was fighting another animal he would flip his body back and forth with all four sets of claws coming at his opponent from all different directions. This maneuver, combined with his body power, agility, and blinding speed made him a most deadly opponent. At the very least that maneuver saved his life once when attacked by an older bobcat out in the Carmel Valley hills trailer park in California when he was about 4 years old and later here in Missouri out on AD Road not long after we moved from California to Missouri. His favorite foods were turkey, chicken, chicken livers, and tuna. I still laugh when I recall the look of contempt on his face the few times he was offered canned cat food. There were a couple of times he made covering up motions as when a cat uses the litter box and covers his business. He loved catnip so much that he was not content to merely sniff it. He ate it, then turned into the most comical clown you could possibly imagine. Sometimes though, he would just lay there all stretched out, higher than a kite, content to do absolutely nothing. His favorite game was "get the toe". Thom and I had to be careful when playing that one with him due to his long needle sharp claws, blistering speed, and his long interlocking incisers. He also liked to play "get the mouse" which consisted of a small fuzzy black mouse tied to a string and dragged along the floor. This cat had the art of feline insults down to a tee. From the flattening of one or both ears to the quick sharp shake of a front paw, to the long slow shake of a back leg, to the "poor me" expression, to the sharp flick of the tail, to the sniff and lift of the nose in the air. He was very open with his emotions and never hesitated to make his feelings known. He was our beloved and adored Bogus Khan who entered this world a fighter and warrior, and left it the way he entered it. God bless his soul, he fought all the way up to the very last second, during the long, lonely 8 hours I sat vigil with him. We lost him to old age and organ failure. Thom and I counted ourselves blessed to have him for 12 + years before he left this world about 4:30 am Sunday morning October 5th 2003.