It almost slipped by. Today would have been my first cat Lucy’s 24th birthday. She crossed the rainbow bridge on June 21, 2017, taking a little piece of my heart with her. I still think about that little stinker from time to time. I still miss her whenever pictures of her show up in my memories or on my timehop.

I was incredibly blessed to have this furry little angel for 17 years. On second thought, make that my furry little sometimes grumpy, sometimes sweet, sometimes ornery, sometimes nice angel. She had lots of personality. Some might say she had plenty of personalities (but I say most of them were nice).

I choose to remember the good parts of those 17 years and not as much that hard last week where I saw her decline so rapidly. A small part of me still wonders if I could have done something differently to save her, but I’m pretty sure it was her time to go. She had a full life, or I suppose she used up all nine of her lives well.

I’m thankful for Peanut, who was never meant to be a replacement but more of another recipient for all the love I still had left inside. I’ll never forget how as a little kitten, Peanut picked me and chose me to be her furrever human.

But on this day, I honor the memory of a special cat. Very few will ever have a cat who was as loyal as she was. I’ll never forget how she waited by the front door every afternoon for me to come home from work. That was a blessing.

She was a blessing, so on this special day, I still say, “Thanks, Lucy! You were the best!”