The love of a pet is a blessing. Ideally they bless your life while you, in turn, bless theirs. But the nature of a life is that, at some point, it must end.Saying goodbye to a member of your family is painful. For those of us who look on pets as members of their family, not only does a part of your heart pass with them, so does a part of your family.
Our cat Miracle, who has been with us for the last 17 years, has been struggling with kidney disease. We promised ourselves – we promised her – that we wouldn’t let her suffer, wouldn’t let her quality of life erode. Wednesday was the day we let her cross the Rainbow Bridge. She joined her younger sister Skipper who passed earlier this year after a brief illness.
Yes, Miracle was “only a pet, only an animal.” But she was a good little sister for our older cat Cinderella when she joined us, and became a good big sister when Skipper joined us 12 years ago. She slept on my wife’s pillow for at least part of nearly every night she was with us. She was timid for most of her life, hiding from nearly everyone who entered our house. But in the last year, because of her numerous visits to the vet, she began to come out of her shell and interact with the vet techs, rubbing them and purring for them. She was a sweet cat.
Unless you were a mouse, and then she was deadly.
Miracle was the first cat we adopted from KittyCorner of CNY. Her sister Skipper was the 2nd. Less than two weeks ago, we adopted kittens Elsa and Annabella from there as well. We were hoping Miracle had time to be a big sister to them. She didn’t.
If you know that almost any pet you bring into your life will pass before you do, why set yourself up for the loss? In our case, we feel that sharing lives while they are here is part of that mutual blessing, and remembering them after they leave your life can be sweet as well. We still have memories of the other cats who have shared our lives, remembering their personalities, actions and quirks. And after the pain of loosing her begins to lessen, we will think back on all the time we spent with Miracle and smile.