Good bye good (and sometimes evil) kitty. You marched into our lives eleven years ago, on the night that a friend’s mother died literally appearing out of the darkness and then refusing to go away. Thank you to those friends for bringing him into my life. Barn cat. House cat. Hunter extraordinaire. Photographic subject. Paperweight. Zoom meeting attendee. Neighborhood greeter. You touched many lives in those various roles and helped me to meet many neighbors since you had a tendency to run up to people to greet them. The world is an emptier place without my buddy who followed me around the house and the garden and sat with me.
For the curious, he was hit by a car with enough force that his pelvis was displaced forward and probably severed nerves. Even with a compromised hind end and with an opiate and a benzodiazepine flowing through his veins the vet still had to trim his nails in order to examine him. For all the negative talk about the vet profession, they got me in immediately, treated us both with compassion, and if anything undercharged me. Yes, I know there was a risk in letting him outside but he was something of a free spirit and I only let him out when I was home and never at night. My street is narrow enough that you have to pay attention to drive down it when there are cars parked so, in theory, people shouldn’t be going too fast. I have no idea how fast the driver was going but the screech of breaks and the thud were both pretty loud.
Hug your kitties and take lots of photos because you never know.