Well, it seems my pocket of joy had a hole at the bottom because all my joy leaked out. Today I sent my cat of 18 years to that great lap in the sky.

Shad was a great cat. He loved to bask in the sun and loved, loved, loved laps. When my sister was staying with me while recovering from her stroke Shadow spent many a sunny afternoon snoozing on her lap. (I took a picture but that was before I knew to upload to the cloud and that phone is sitting at the bottom of the Concord River along with the other two phones.)

There’s a funny story about Shadow. When he was around a year old he developed a UTI. A really bad one. My husband and Chris were down south at the drag races and I was left to tend to the homestead. I brought Shad to the animal clinic and received a quote of $2000.00 to treat the infection. Like a dutiful wife, I called my ex (emphasis on ‘ex’) who told me to put Shadow down.

With a heavy heart I said I would and told the hospital staff my decision. Not a second later I changed my mind and paid the bill. Several days later my Shad came home and, as you can surmise from the above paragraph, got rid of the husband.

Shad was with me through seven moves. Yes, seven. Seven new locations for his litter box. He always knew the best spots to nap, though, and always found my lap. Over the years I’ve cried into his soft fur, laughed while stroking his ears, and brushed him while listening to his sage advice, which was invariably for me to take a nap in the sunshine.

For the past two years it was touch and go with trips to the vet and special foods, including baby food, ground ham, pulverized turkey, senior bisque for cats — the list grew and grew as Shad wasted away. But just when I expected he wasn’t long for this world he would pull a life out of his magic bag of tricks. I swear Shadow had a ton of lives, not just nine. I stopped counting at 20.

Damn, I’ll miss my buddy.

I hope he’s napping on Dyan’s lap. Blessed be :{

Mi manchi, mia amata immortale.