Today someone left us, she succumbed to an unknown feline illness the vets couldn’t diagnose. It was her time; the illness reduced her to a shadow of herself, unable to walk, unwilling to eat, plaintively expressing her misery; it was time. We decided not to make her suffer further and took her to the vet for the last time. Ruth was stronger than me, she took her on that final trip while I hid out at work.

She was a typical cat, often disdainfully putting up with the people who took care of her from her days as a little kitten, often bored with what was going on around her, often asleep… and often so happy to see us when we came home or got up in the morning. Her given name when we adopted her, Saphyl, never quite fit. To us and everyone who visited our, actually her, house, she was Sophie, or just Soaf. She, in her own small way, helped fill our lives.

In the big scheme of things it was a minor event, a cat…. a pet… passing away. In our little scheme, it was a major sad event. Goodbye, girlfriend.