I have to confess: I fell in love with a girl long after I married my wife and since that moment she’s been a part of my life that I wont let go–until now at least. She was a stray on the edge of becoming feral, but she was tiny and cute all the same. I met her at a vet where I was taking my dog for a check up. She was with her brother and the vet couldn’t keep them both. He didn’t have to ask me to take her. I knew straight away she’d be coming home with me. She did, and we spent the next 9 years together. She would have been 10 this year.
I don’t know why or how it happened. The warning signs were there. Tonight my wife to my girl to the vet and she came home alone. Razi’s liver failed and we had to put her to rest. I didn’t have the strength to go to the vet myself. My wife went with our youngest. We didn’t know how bad it was or expect that it would end in euthanasia. He didn’t take it well.
Our family has faced a lot of death over the past few years. We lost a father each of the last two years. Losing a cat is much easier in some ways and harder in others. She was with us every day, so the loss is more immediately realized. It is just a pet, but pets are the ones who love us when no one else cares to. Pets are the ones who curl up on our lap and purr. Pets are the ones who remind us that someone can’t live without us.
Once in a while circumstance reminds us that they can’t live forever.