Loss of a Dear Friend

On January 8, we lost our dear little kitty, Lady. She had lived to the ripe old age of 19. She would have been 20 in April. She had been living with renal failure for the past two years. While it is very difficult to lose a friend, I could tell that the end was near. In the past few weeks, she had really slowed down. In her last week, we moved her litter box downstairs because she was too weak to go upstairs where it usually was. She had also started breathing hard in her last week and was not eating and barely drinking.

She was a lap kitty and it seemed like every time I sat down she was in my lap. She loved to sit in my lap while I was on the computer or doing my morning devotional. She stuck by me through everything. I remember when I was pregnant and came home from school exhausted, she would be waiting for me on the couch, because she knew that was where I would be for the next hour! When I had a stomach virus, she would camp out with me in the bathroom. She was a great hunter in her younger years. She was known to hunt squirrels, birds, mice, and even moles! We had some problems with squirrels getting into the attic at our first house until one afternoon when we let Lady go in and have a look. No more squirrels! Her favorite was rabbits and last caught one at age 17. After we moved into our new house, our neighbors across the street had dogs that were inside an electric fence. Lady liked to go out on our front porch where the dogs could see her, but not reach her, just to torment them! I had Lady before I even met Mark, before we married, and before my own children. I remember telling Mark when we were dating, "Love me, love my cat," and he did.

When Ellen came along, Lady had a very hard time adjusting to a "sibling." She paced the floor for weeks and would try to get into my lap while I nursed. Eventually, she forgave Ellen for being born and was even known to sleep on Ellen's bed at night during her last year. By the time John came along, she was an old pro. She allowed John to wag her all around the house and never complained, unless he pulled her tail!

I will miss Lady. I think I can learn many lessons from her life. She lived with two different families (I got her when she was 4 years old), in five different homes, got lost twice, and was even hit by a car, but she managed to adjust and perservere. I think that was one reason why she lived so long. I loved her very much.