Thank you all so much for your kind words. Your condolences really touched me. I hope you’ll understand if I don’t respond individually. I’ll leave you instead with this little collage of Zoot at various ages.

Zoot () passed away in the early morning hours on Monday, October 24, 2005. I adopted her as a six-week-old stray on Memorial Day in 2003, when I found her crying piteously in my driveway in a heavy rainstorm. She immediately started purring when I picked her up, which sealed my fate.

I don’t know what the cause of death was: I found her on the floor next to the couch, with no apparent injuries, when I woke up in the morning. When I’d gone to sleep a few hours earlier she was as affectionate and playful as always—the picture of rude feline health. Losing her is a blow, and I miss her. I’m posting this because I’m retiring her blog, and I wanted to let folks know why.

Yesterday was the first annual Tour de Bob. The modestly-named tour is a bicycle ride through Marine Park and Rockaway, and points in between. Sunday afternoon and Laura, and and Shana showed up at my house wearing “Tour de Bob” tee-shirts that they’d designed and had printed for the occasion. To say I was floored would be an understatement. I pulled on my tee-shirt and off we went on a three-hour, twenty-mile tour. All photography by the incomparable Laura Chavoen, except for the group shots in front of Battery Harris East, which were snapped by a kind stranger.

I’ve added two new pages to my Website:

Introducing William Howe, supergenius and my little brother. Read all about him, and check out his amazing photography on his very own page.

I’ve also updated the links page with its first real content. More will follow in the next few days.