Lilu Nelson

Lilu and Aerith

We did not know when we adopted Lilu how Aerith would react. Our hope was that they would be best friends. That…didn’t quite work out. There was a time we were concerned about whether we could keep both cats. But we kept at it, and even though Aerith never fully accepted Lilu, she did grow to tolerate her. Lilu had a very laid-back attitude. She was often pretty forgiving of a lot of stuff. That doesn’t mean she did not hold her own ground, however. There were tussles, and sometimes Lilu would even win some of those.

As Aerith aged, though, she fought less with Lilu. Lilu often tried to be friendly with Aerith, despite Aerith not reciprocating. After Aerith passed away, we noticed that Lilu seemed to miss Aerith. This was part of the reason why we would later adopt Maxwell. Although this time we made sure the cat we adopted would accept Lilu, and this time we got it right.

Lilu as part of the family

Lilu loved to hang around us. She would also find us and either sleep on our laps or somewhere nearby (like her bed near my wife’s computer). We often dressed her up for Halloween, which she didn't mind too much. And of course, she loved being in front of the fireplace in winter. Unlike other cats, she did. not mind being on her back, which you can see in many of the pictures.

Lilu even gained a bit of fame when I submitted a picture of her passed out on my workbench while I was working. I submitted this to Adafruit, where they have a “cats of engineering” page, and she is still there today. https://www.adafruit.com/galleries/cats-of-engineering

Never a dull moment with Lilu

Lilu was with us for barely a month when we had a water pipe burst in the house. It burst in the master bedroom bathroom located on the top floor of the house. This meant that when we returned home from work, we came back to some very confused cats and a waterfall in our family room.

Due to the damage, we had to temporarily relocate from our house. Fortunately, my parents had just purchased their new home but had not yet moved in. We packed up both cats and moved there for about two months while our house was being repaired. During that time, Lilu was spayed, and we discovered that she had E. coli in her gut.

Lilu and Maxwell

We adopted Maxwell partly to keep company for Lilu. When we visited the shelter where Maxwell was, we noticed that Maxwell seemed friendly to all the other cats. Even if those other cats did not return the affection. We knew that he would be a good companion for Lilu. And…we were not wrong. It did not take long for the two of them to become best friends. Sure, they had their fights. While Lilu had no issue with Maxwell, sometimes he can be a bit much, and Lilu had her limits, which she was very good at letting him know what those were.

Lilu’s passing

One day, we noticed that Lilu was not eating her dry food. Lilu was very food motivated, and we always knew that if she stopped eating, something was wrong. We tried to give her some other food, but she was not interested. We immediately scheduled an appointment with the vet. They ran blood work and found that her liver values were elevated. They also noted that she looked bloated and that she probably had fluid in her abdomen. They asked if we could do further tests, which, of course, we agreed to. Unfortunately, those tests came back positive for cancer. They suspected that she had cancer in the gall bladder, although it could be in other organs as well. We attempted to give an appetite stimulate and medication to make her more comfortable. We scheduled her for an appointment with oncology, but that appointment would be three weeks away.

Over the weekend, we noticed that she was getting weaker and weaker. While she would eat, it was very little. She often stumbled while walking, but for us, the thing we were really worried about was that she was not sleeping. She lay in her box in the dining room, in front of one of our cameras, and we could tell she was unable to sleep.

We do not believe she was in any pain, but it was also clear that this was not a good quality of life for her. After consulting with the vet, we agreed that the humane thing to do was to put her to sleep. Lilu passed away on November 17th, 2025.

Lilu was one of the best cats we had, and she brought immense joy to our lives. She will be greatly missed.