My boy

Some people can't understand why I am so distraught over the death of my precious Douglas. All I can say is that you really had to know him, to understand. This cat was a stray who just marched into my house and took over. He hung around the house for about a week, and then I told my husband that since no one had claimed him, I would take him to the vet for a check-up and we could bring him in the house. At the time the vet told us that he had asthma and was having a flare-up that would need to heal before we could get him neutered, but otherwise he would be ok to bring in the house.
Things seemed normal enough and then one day I noticed that Douglas who at the time we called Smokey(because of his smoked appearance)was only licking the gravy out of his food. Remembering my grandfather Douglas' fondness for gravy, I mentioned to my mom, that he was pulling a "Douglas" trick and eating only the gravy. The weird thing was that the cat actually stopped lapping the gravy, looked up at me and walked over to my feet and sat down. Mother and I looked at each other, and our mouths fell open. She said "Is your name Douglas?" He moved closer to her and looked up. I guess we had our answer, and we began calling him Douglas from then on, but the really bizarre thing is that he would come running when you said his name. Cats aren't supposed to do that. You know that joke is, dogs come when called; cats take a message and get back to you. Not this one.
He also began meeting me at the door when we came home. Again, dogs do this, cats don't. I can't tell you what a bond we developed, because quite frankly I still don't understand it myself. When he would meet me at the door, I would pick him up and he would put his front legs around my neck, like a hug, purring and rubbing his head into my face and chin. When my mother was sick, in the hospital, I would stay with her at night and come home in the morning for a shower and nap, Douglas would meet me at the door, jump into my arms I would hug him and all of the stress and worry I would feel would just dissolve away.
I miss him so much.
No matter what I envisioned for my life, I NEVER saw it WITHOUT my Douglas. I still can't believe he is gone.