I knew it was coming, but I didn't want to believe it was true. As part of the great Zynga Facebook game purge of 2012, which has already claimed Treasure Isle, Fishville and Mafia Wars 2, my little friend here will be terminated come December 30.
His name is Back, named after my long-standing, often dancing Second Life avatar. He owns a modest house in PetVille, where his friends would come and clean him, or feed him cupcakes. He enjoys dressing up in Star Wars costumes, telling jokes to friends and redecorating his kitchen.
Come December 30 it'll be as if he never existed.
The dreaded game closing message arrived late last week, while I was busy being distracted by Gawker headquarters in New York.
Thank you for supporting PetVille and for being a loyal player! We're sorry to inform you that PetVille will be shutting down on Dec 30, 2012. In place of PetVille, we encourage you to play other Zynga games like Castleville, Chefville, Farmville 2, Mafia Wars and Yoville.
They aren't the same! None of those is a clone of Pet Society, the game I was playing before Zynga took all my friends away. None of them lets me dress a cat thing in costumes!
Okay, so I haven't logged into PetVille in over a year, and he was pretty much dead to me anyway. That's hardly the point.
Oh, I guess it is.
Rest in peace, little cat thing. May you find low prices on pink kitchenware in virtual heaven.