To all the cats I've loved before

I've never had a pet for a long time. Growing up in the country, we often "inherited" some outdoor cats. Once the cat became an indoor/outdoor cat. His name was T.J. and he was a black and white kitty. We had him for about six months before he wandered off and probably died. Then my sister bought me a tabby kitten. I named him Jordan, as I thought Michael Jordan was kewel. We tried to keep him indoors, but after about four months, he escaped one day. Twenty four hours later, he was dead on the road, hit by a car.

I never became overly attached to those cats, and they were my only experience with pets. Then came Ali. I've probably told the story before of how we met. Chris and I were engaged and living in an apartment. We'd discussed getting a cat, but hadn't pulled the trigger. We'd come home to visit family over the holidays. Chris stayed one night at his mom's, where there was only a twin bed in a tiny house, while I went ahead to my dad's house. I pulled into the driveway at about 10:00 p.m. I went around to the passenger side to grab my bags. Up jumps the cutest calico kitten into my passenger seat! She just looked up at me and purred. After some scritches, I left the cat and went inside. My dad said she'd been around for a few weeks and was very friendly. He'd asked some of the neighbors and nobody was missing a cat. I called Chris the next morning and told him that I think we'd found our cat. That was 1998. She was estimated at one year old.

She was always "my" cat, following me incessantly, cuddling at every turn. If I try to sleep in, she wakes me up by sitting on my chest, nose almost touching mine, purring loudly with big bright eyes staring. She'd do this for an hour if I could stand it. We lived through her knee surgery and constantly struggled for years with her constipation. Today I took her in for what I thought was another enema. She'd been lethargic for a few days, was having trouble using the litterbox, and had no appetite. All issues that added up to constipation before. Today they said she didn't feel impacted, and seemed very dehydrated. After tests, it's confirmed she has kidney failure. We think it's in early stages, but won't know until tomorrow how she responds to treatment. It could be a few months, it could be five years.

*sniffle* It was hard to hear my best kitten friend will never be quite the same.