Love lives beyond death
forever on sweet memories
of your heart melting
slowly into mine.

Watching over you each day
was my greatest joy.

Our 5 years and 6 months together
were so wonderful.
I thought my time with you
would go on  forever……
But I was wrong.

Suddenly, without warning
a horrible thing called—
“hypertrophic cardiomyopathy”
came and took your breath away.
If it were possible,
I would have given my life
to save yours,
but there was no way
to ease your suffering.
On the day that you died,
my heart broke in two.
I felt as if somehow
I had failed to protect you.

Once you were gone,
I was alone for the first time.
I was not prepared
to lose my best friend.

Somehow, I walked through sorrow
and found the will to go on.
Now, I’ve grown since you’ve been gone.
You would be proud to see
that I’m handsome and strong.
But there still remains
a sadness in my blue eyes,
dreaming of what once was mine.
I want you to know
even as the years go by
I will always remember you!      ~ms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our cat Anika died suddenly in the summer of 2011, of a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  The blood clots, thrown from her heart to her legs, struck suddenly and without warning. She was only 5 years and 6 months old. Watching our male cat, Keona, trying to understand what was happening—broke my heart. He loved her more than anything in this world.

She was in so much pain, we had to take her into the vet to put her out of her misery. Even the vet was crying, it was so hard to watch the intensity of her pain. When we came back home without her, Keona just looked at us. He didn’t make a sound. He just went and laid down on the couch. I could see the hurt in his eyes. He knew. There was nothing any of us could do to bring her back.

On a positive note, because I had entered them in an online cat contest in 2006, I have a lot of great photos and videos of the two of them together when they were young.  I am glad that I did not wait, thinking that there was always tomorrow.  Now those photos and videos that I have are priceless memories.