Twitter legend Sockington the cat has died aged 18

Sockington, the original social media celebrity cat, has died at the ripe old age of 18. 

Known as Sockamillion or plain old Socks, the beloved Internet star joined Twitter back in March 2007 building up an impressive following that peaked at over 1.5 million followers. The famous feline had over a million followers at the time of his passing.

The news was confirmed by Sockington's human, computer historian and internet archivist, Jason Scott:

As Jason reports, Sockington had been battling health issues for a while; he had organ problems and a heart murmur and just last week was at the vets with kidney problems:

Sockington had an impressively long and exciting life; a grey and white Domestic Shorthair, he was found as a stray outside a Boston subway station in 2004 before being adopted by Scott.

His light-hearted Twitter updates (back in the days when you could only Tweet 140 characters and it was near-impossible to Tweet photos) quickly saw him become a social sensation, with a million followers by 2009, and his own line of t-shirts.

Following the news of his passing, Twitter users have been paying tribute to this remarkable cat:

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You have to respect any cat with more Twitter followers than Tom Cruise. And while it's a sad day for Twitter cat-lovers, Jason Scott's staying positive, with a lovely suggestion on how you might want to pay your own respects to Sockington:

And while Sockington himself is gone, you can find snapshots from his life in this Flickr gallery, and his Twitter account remains as a tribute, complete with this delightful update:

What greater reward is there for being the best cat? RIP Sockington.