Pimco’s Gross, Facing Skeptical Investors, Discusses His Dead Cat

William H. Gross, the founder of the giant asset manager Pimco, is contending with skeptical investors and a choppy bond market, not to mention a stream of negative publicity after the resignation of his heir apparent.

But Mr. Gross would sooner talk about his recently deceased cat.

He devoted considerable space in his investment outlook letter on Thursday to a eulogy for his cat of 14 years, a female Maine Coon named Bob who was “one of the sweetest animals that anyone could have had.”

In the letter, titled simply “Bob,” Mr. Gross opens with a discussion of the life and times of his pet, including how he “often asked her about her recommendations for pet food stocks.” Luckily for Pimco’s customers, Mr. Gross invested instead in bonds.

“One meow for ‘no,’ two meows for a ‘you bet,’” Mr. Gross wrote. “She was less certain about interest rates, but then it never hurt to ask.”

Regular readers of the dispatches from Mr. Gross would probably not be surprised by the lengthy digression. In a February note, for example, he mused on capital punishment for pigs.

Now, however, Mr. Gross is facing an unusual level of scrutiny. In March, investors pulled a net of $3.1 billion from Pimco’s Total Return Fund, a giant bond fund that Mr. Gross manages, in the 11th-straight month of outflows, according to Morningstar. The financial research company recently lowered its grade on Pimco’s overall stewardship.

The downgrade stemmed in part from unflattering reports about Pimco surrounding the departure of Mohamed A. El-Erian, the chief executive. In February, The Wall Street Journal described a tense environment at Pimco where Mr. Gross would sometimes lash out at employees.

Mr. Gross in the new letter highlights the humanizing aspects of his personality.

“Aside from sleeping, Bob loved nothing more than to follow me from room to room making sure I was O.K.,” he wrote. “It got to be a little much at times, especially when entering and exiting the shower. I’m not a particularly shy guy, but then why was a female cat named Bob checking me out all the time?”

“Her obsession carried over to the TV, sensing when I was on CNBC and paying apt attention no less,” he continued.

After three feline-focused paragraphs, Mr. Gross finally discusses bonds in broad terms. “Although credit spreads are tight, they are not as compressed as interest rates, which are now in the process of normalization,” he wrote.

But the heart of the letter is Bob, whose name is a reference to the 1991 film “What About Bob?”

“We buried her ashes in the backyard,” Mr. Gross wrote. “Her gravestone reads just â€" ‘Bob.’ What a girl, what a kitty girl that Bob.”