my cat died this morning. my wife and i got her the same month we got married i think, so that puts her at about 17 years. her kidneys had been failing for a while. her decline had become quite pronounced the last few weeks, so her death was no surprise.
we got her when she was a kitten not quite old enough to be taken from her mother. she was in a bad living situation, so plagued with fleas that her lips, tongue, and gums were white from anemia. we bottle fed her for a few weeks. i named her pai, after pai chan from virtua fighter, for no particular reason. we called her variations of ping, also for no particular reason.
i find myself saddest at the thought that she can’t know how sad we are that she’s gone. our saddness is our love for her expressing itself in ressponse to her death. love isn’t only one color.