Here she is enjoying today's afternoon autumn sun.
She was diagnosed with lymphoma in late April, and given weeks to days to live. She said fuck that, I'm not done here yet, and promptly added the entire summer (and many, many bbq's, which were her absolute favorite for obvious reasons) to her lifespan in spite of her condition.
After returning from the vet, we laid her to rest in the exact spot she had chosen in the picture.
My heart is in a thousand pieces, but most of all I remember the good times and the 15 years of loyalty and love I was privileged enough to receive. It was never going to be long enough even if she lived to 30.
Goodbye my sweet angel. Thank you so much for all the joy you brought us. I tried my best to repay you in kind, because you deserved it. Now there will forevermore be a small cat-shaped hole in my heart that I don't quite know how to ever fill.
That cat-shaped hole in your heart will heal with time but probably never completely, it is an indelebile scar on your soul so you can remember how much you loved that precious little thing. It is OK to learn to love another cat: if it loved you as much as you liked it, it would not want you to be in a perpetutal widowing state.