Seventeen years ago, our lives changed forever when my neighbor adopted a kitten. You would think the neighbor getting a cat wouldn’t have much effect on me or my then-boyfriend, now husband, but it did. Missy was a sweet and curious black-and-white kitty who loved to play with us at night when she was allowed out of the house.
One day, my neighbors suddenly moved and were clearly going to leave this sweet kitten on her own. They said we could have her or take her back to where they got her, but they couldn’t remember where that was. I told John we had to take her in but the deal was that, if we broke up, the cat would be mine. Considering she’s a daddy’s girl, it’s a good thing we ended up getting married! We often joke that we got married for the cat.
Missy was my first cat and taught me a lot. Not just about cat ownership, but about love. I’m still learning this lesson, but she really showed me how we need to love people (and animals) how they want to be loved for it to be meaningful. Missy was not very affectionate until her later years. She showed love by supervising us, especially me, all the time. We affectionately called her Nurse Missy because you could always tell if one of us was coming down with something because she would pay that person special attention.
This summer, we said goodbye to Missy after 17 years with her. Time and grief have not been on my side, which is the main reason I’m just now sharing about her death in this space. On one hand, it was really hard to say goodbye because we had her for so long and she was our first pet. But on the other hand, she was given a few months to live four years ago so we feel like we had four extra years with her!
Missy was a daddy’s girl from the moment they met.
