A former Captain Springfield – the first one that wasn’t human – has died. Googey, the orange cat who lived at BookMarx, was 10 when he died peacefully at home at the bookstore Thursday with his human and his cat friend, Squash, according to a Facebook post by the owner of the store Joshua Arnett.
Googey was arguably Springfield’s most well-known and beloved cat. He even served as the grand marshal of the Springfield Christmas Parade in 2023.
“Anyone who has visited Bookmarx in the last decade and met Googey knows what a special cat he was," Arnett wrote. "Googey first showed up to a book club a decade ago sneezing blood in the care of a shelter worker who was giving this sick kitten some extra attention for the night and by the end of the discussion of Stephen King’s “It”, we knew we wanted Googey to stay forever. I don't really have the capacity or words to articulate, right now, how important Googey was to me personally and to my life other than to say everything important and good in my life—my family, the bookstore, my sobriety—would have not existed without Googey. He appeared at a very dark period of my life and helped me maintain enough of the part of myself that I like while I was struggling with addiction and gave me unconditional love when I didn’t deserve it, and stayed with me until I made it to the other side.
And while Googey means so much to me personally, I also know that Googey was and is The People’s Googey (2023 Captain Springfield, 2023 Christmas Parade Grand Marshal!), and that he meant a lot to so many people, and I really struggled with the decision handling Googey’s end of life because I know how many people care about him and would have loved the chance to say goodbye, and know how much everyone meant to Googey, but that it would be easiest on Googey to be free from suffering longer.”
Arnett wrote that Googey’s death was “kind and humane” and was helped along by Peaceful Crossings.
“Googey, I’m sorry that in all our years, I never took a photo of you in an angel outfit to post for this occasion, but we love you so much, you brought me more joy than I thought possible, thank you for everything. I hope you enjoyed your time as much as we all enjoyed being with you. I’m so lucky you came into my life,” wrote Arnett.
A memorial is set at the bookstore on January 19. Details will be announced soon.
