02/06/2026
Dearest Stella, I have always been a dog person until I met a woman with a cat (you) in 2014. I lost my own Buster dog in the same year and my last trusty good-boy Max in 2016 and never replaced them. It turns out that I would learn some things about cats and you from then to now. You taught me how not to touch your belly or try to pick you up; how your affection would bloom if I did not reach for it too often; how your wants were not on display with a firehose or on your sleeve but were there just the same when the trust kicked in; how you liked to cuddle on your own terms and in your own time. All I needed was to wait and give you affection with just the right amount of nonchalance, pull back, and watch you come back for more. And over the years you began to return dividends I would never have expected: and I realized love had become bidirectional. You even started letting me pick you up when you realized I wanted you up on the couch with us—and then you figured out how to lie there and enjoy it. So, I guess we trained each other.
Then this last weekend, you got yet another UTI, a marker for a longstanding decline in your kidneys. We took you to the ER and got you on meds, and you still languished. We took you to the vet on Monday for a day of IV hydration, but you still got worse that night and almost died before waking up the next morning refreshed, purring, drinking, and eating again. But hopes were dashed with a return visit to the vet Tuesday that told us with a single blood test that your kidneys were failing, and though you were lucid and seemingly yourself again (though moving very slowly)--we knew the truth that you were headed for very dark waters in the next day or three. We took some pictures of you Tuesday in your last hurrah, spoiling you with tuna fish and half and half and tenderness, and then took you back to the vet to say goodbye.
You and your padded shadows and your presence will be missed, but I am grateful for the way you enriched our lives, strengthened our spirit with your own for the bad times like now, and for your own brand of affection and love. You started out as just a cat but became my darling clementine.
