It seems like just yesterday that we brought you home from the shelter. I don't know if we would have been brave enough to adopt you if we'd known how many health problems you had, and that we would only get to keep you for five years. But you made that decision for us when you climbed onto the Boy's lap and started to purr like a fiend. You chose him right from the beginning, and your love for him never wavered.

We haven't heard it for a while, but you were the only cat we'd ever met that had such a loud trilling purr, with actual notes! Also the only 4-year-old who still liked to chase her tail, and had a whole ritual in place for it. You loved playing with the Boy and sleeping in his bed, as well as sitting on HalfshellHusband's lap while he ate lunch. Evenings were mostly mine, when you sat on the sofa next to me and dozed, and I leaned over to moosh my head into yours and give you circular pets.

It took several years to break through your trust issues, but you were a sweet little cat and a good friend to everyone, and the house is so very empty without you now. I never expected to lose you so soon, or that it would be forest-fire smoke that finally proved too much for your heart to cope with, and took you from us so suddenly. You had so much personality, and you deserved so much more time to nap in pools of sunlight and follow your Boy around the house and be petted and loved and cherished.