The chill in the air still says “winter,” but NYC’s Union Square Greenmarket was ablaze today with the happy harbingers of spring: daffodils, pansies, tulips, ranunculus, all blooming their vibrantly hued little heads off. I couldn’t resist taking out my iPhone to snap some shots of all the flower-filled flats.

My floral euphoria was short-lived; I reflexively checked my e-mails, and my heart  sank when I saw one from our friend Jen with the subject heading “Our Dear Lloyd”" :

It is with a very heavy heart that I’m telling you that our dear Lloyd passed away yesterday.  I am too tearful to talk on the phone, so please accept this e-mail note instead.

Our precious marmalade cat would have been 18 next month.  I know many people feel their pets are special, but Lloyd was truly unique.  He was meant to be with us.  He literally reached out and poked us at the animal shelter in New York City many years ago — “hey, pick me!” “

  ”Lloyd was a cat of simple tastes.  He liked his dry cat food and water; he liked to stay at home and sleep most of the day; and he liked his female friends, especially ZuZu, his one true love from New York City.  He liked to escape and lurk around the backyard every now and then, but he was really a homebody.

 Lloyd gave us all so much joy and comfort all these years, and he asked for so little in return.  I hope he’s now in Kitty Heaven and is free from all pain and discomfort.  We will miss him terribly.

Lloyd was one of the lucky ones; he went from a shelter to a good home with a family that adored him. A regal redhead, he was treated like the king that he was and lived a long, happy life. He and his owners lived across the hallway from us for several years, during which time he and our own former-stray-in-residence, Zuzu, shared an on-again, off-again flirtation.

They’d sneak out of our respective apartments and rendezvous in the hallway, sometimes touching noses, sometimes hissing. Whenever Zuzu got the chance, she dashed out into the hallway and made a beeline for Lloyd’s front door.

She still does, even though Lloyd and his family moved across the river to New Jersey years ago. Zuzu lives in eternal hope of a reunion with her heartthrob-across-the-hall. I guess she’ll get it in “Kitty Heaven,” and sooner than I’d like to think; she’s nearly as old as Lloyd and she’s getting pretty creaky.

It makes me sad to see our geriatric feline growing ever less agile, but I console myself with the thought that she’s done OK for herself, for a scruffy, feral kitten from the streets of Brooklyn.

There are millions of dogs and cats that wind up in animal shelters all over the country who never get the chance to grow old and creaky; the number of dogs and cats we euthanize in this county every year is a heartbreak and a horror.  The Humane Society has the numbers:

Every day in the United States, thousands upon thousands of puppies and kittens are born because of the uncontrolled breeding of pets. Add to that number the offspring of stray and abandoned companion animals, and the total becomes even more staggering. Every year, between six and eight million dogs and cats enter U.S. shelters; some three to four million of these animals are euthanized because there are not enough homes for them.

What can we do to make a dent in the disgraceful number of innocent creatures that go uncared for and get put to death? We can start by encouraging everyone who’s looking to adopt a pet to bypass the purebreds from the pet stores, and head to the shelter instead. What could be more one-of-a-kind than a mutt?

Second, we’ve got to convince more pet owners to have their pets spayed or neutered, by making it easier and more affordable. The Humane Society has done great work in this area, most recently convincing the City of Los Angeles to adopt an historic spay/neuter ordinance requiring all cats and dogs older than 4 months to be spayed or neutered, unless they fall into one of seven exempted categories.

The Humane Society is also promoting programs to spay or neuter feral animals, whose numbers contribute terribly to the overpopulation problem.

When I got the bad news about Lloyd this morning, I sat down on the curb at the Greenmarket and cried for a while, and then wondered if there was anything I could possibly do to console my friend Jen and her family. I decided that the best way to honor Zuzu’s sometime sweetheart would be to send a donation to the Humane Society in Lloyd’s memory, and to send a shout-out to that fine organization for everything they do to better the lives of our four-legged friends.

Learn more about the Humane Society’s efforts on behalf of companion animals here.  

Lloyd