Goodbye Katinka, sweet kitty, we will miss you...

We lost a cat today. Well, we didn't "lose" her, I know right where she is because I found her in the street just after the car did.

That was this morning, about 8 hours ago. My youngest and I were just leaving the house to go to grandma's and as we walked out we saw one of our other cats, a different one, "playing" with a bird he just caught. Good timing though as I was able to snatch that kitty up and toss him in the house.

Crisis averted, or so I thought, I went back out to walk to the car and the little one was looking closely at the bird, "she's still breathing dad and she blinked." Awesome, we saved the bird!

We have to go though, it's time, so I look up towards the car and I see, in a heap in the street, Katinka. It's our cat, I know it immediately. And just as I am turning to direct the little one into the house she spots it too. Dammit.

We had three cats (two now) and of the three she was around the most. One is an outdoor cat as he just can't stop peeing in the house, the other (the bird killer) is extremely independent and dissappears for days on end, only to come home, sleep for about 20 hours, then leave again for who knows how long.

So Katinka, a mostly indoor cat, was really the most like our family cat. You will see if you scroll the pictures some of the things she put up with and she was a champ about it.

It's been a tough day and I just finished digging her grave. The high schoolers aren't even home from school yet as they have rehearsal for another hour so they don't even know. That has been the hardest part of the day, going over and over how I'm going to tell the two kids that probably don't remember life without their favorite cat, Katinka.

As far as the passing of loved ones goes we have been fortunate. The kids still have both sets of grandparents around and that is great. Having not suffered much loss though, this may hit harder that one might think for those two teenagers. I'm just not sure and I want them to finish rehearsal so I can pick them up and tell them the news and then, soon after I hope, the healing can begin.