1981 —- March 20 2000
Almost 19 years ago it was love at first sight.
I picked up the bundle of fur that would be become my teacher of life.
When I brought Stacey home I had no idea what a responsibility I had just
gotten myself into. I found that the cute bundle of fur that I had fallen in
love with needed a lot of attention.
Being 18 I was not ready to give the kind of attention to her that she desired.
So I grew to resent her.
Being the charmer that Stacey was she worked her way into my heart,
teaching me that love didn’t have to be an all or nothing deal.
That it was acceptable for me to love her and take care of her and
still have my own life. Needless to say I fell back in love with
Miss Stacey Katz. I did not realize that she had feelings too and because
of my rejection of her she was not quite ready to take me back.
Years went by and I let her be.
I gave her just as much love as she would allow.
And soon she was back in love with me.
That was the beginning of best years of our relationship.
She knew when I wanted to be loved and I knew the things that she wanted.
There was an unspoken communication between us.
That is why it was so hard to watch my friend die.
Almost 19 years had past I had committed more of my life to this one cat
than to any other being in the world.
She had 2 weeks left to live from the time that I noticed her eating had
slowed down.
The last week of her life she would only drink water alot of water.
I could hear her stomach grumble and wanted it to stop.
So I gave her milk with some maple syrup.
She always had a sweet tooth. This help but still I knew that my friend
and companion was dying.
We had a party for her on Saturday night. Most of the people that knew
her were there. They looked down at the small thin old lady that she had
become and we remembered Miss Stacey’s glory days when her belly
hung down to knees. Someone once said that it looked
like she was wearing her mother’s clothes.
On Sunday morning I knew that I had to close the chapter in my life
that was Stacey. Each hour she got progressively worse.
She became unstable and unable to walk. By 11:00pm that evening
I think that she had a stroke.
She could not hold up her head and the right side of her was stiff.
I put her under some plants and said good-bye incase she died while I
was asleep and I couldn’t say good-bye.
At 4:23am Monday morning I awoke to the sound of my best friend
taking her last breath.
Even in her last moment she couldn’t go without me.
She wanted so much for me to help her like I had always done before.
I pet her and kissed her good-bye until the last bit of air left her lungs.
I stepped backed and watched her little legs give the last bit of energy
back into the world.
It was the first day of spring.
Jill
| Stacey Katz |