Saturday, October 15, 2016. I was getting ready to head out and grab some brunch when my phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID and noticed it was my sister whom I had FaceTimed with earlier that morning. I answered to hear her shaky-cracking voice on the other line, asking if I was alone in my room. She then told me to sit down. I felt my stomach drop, my heart racing, and my palms sweating – I knew it could only be bad news. She began to explain to me that my cat, Erebus, was having trouble breathing. So they rushed her to the emergency vet and discovered she had heart failure caused by a heart defect she was born with… there wasn’t much other option than to put her to sleep.

My heart broke - fur baby or not, I loved her. For me, this was the first time that I had lost one of my babies while I wasn’t there. There wasn’t even a chance to say goodbye, all we had was our last goodbye when I left for school in the beginning of September. I never expected that that would be our final parting. She was still so young; I thought we had so much more time together. I remember saving Erebus when she was a kitten; I rescued her and her sister Poe when they were only a few weeks old. They were feral cats born under our porch, so I took them in and gave them a home.

I had never had a cat that got so excited to see me before – she would whip her tail excitedly back and forth as I waved my arms around squealing in a high pitched voice. It was our thing. She would meow at me, drool on me, stick her stinky butt in my face, but I loved it – well maybe not so much her stinky butt in my face. Even combing threw her long knotted fur, brushing out clumps of poo, every bit of the good and the bad. I loved it all. She was my baby.

For anyone who has a fur baby, you know all of the magical things that come with them. Pets are truly the most amazing things in the world. You create a bond with them; you nurture them and grow with them. They see you at your best, they see you at your worst, and they still love you. I can’t even tell you how many times I had done something super embarrassing in front of my animals that I wouldn’t dare do in front of another person – I never felt more myself than with my babies.

I may have rescued my babies, but honestly they rescued me. They provide unconditional love in the purest form. My life is better for having cats – or any pet for that matter. They teach us how to care for someone other than ourselves. They help us connect with our emotions and empathize with others – human or not. They make a house a home. They have given more meaning to my life than I can explain to you. Losing one breaks my heart.

Though I have been blessed to have had all of these precious animals in my life, the loss still hurts, but I am better for had having them in my life. I can only hope I filled their lives with as much join and love as they brought to mine.