As with all my cats, Gracie has been in my life since I was 19. She's been a friend and constant companion to me for 13 years. Her exact age has always been a mystery, though. When I adopted her, I thought she was a kitten because she was so tiny. She never grew bigger than the day I got her, so she was full grown then. Add whatever her age was then to 13 and that's the age she was when she passed away this morning around 10 am.
There's a swirl of feelings in our household today. Lots of tears, agony, loss, depression, grief, exhaustion... but most importantly, there's a feeling of peace and relief. Her whole life was filled with challenges from the start. She was born blind and she also had a chronic inflammatory condition that no vet could ever really figure out. She spent years on treatments of all different kinds of steroids until finally I discontinued them and decided to manage her health myself. This worked well for a long time. She was so healthy for many years that you'd never guess she had a condition of any kind.
Whenever people met her for the first time, I'd always get a kick out of telling them she was blind because she never acted blind or less-off than anyone else. She would always be right there to greet people and "see" what was going on when we had visitors. She loved to get right in the middle of the action of the kitchen too. She'd always be there to listen to clanging pots and pans and smell all the aromas when I would cook meals. As night fell, the crickets started to chirp from behind the refrigerator and under the dishwasher. She delightfully took it all in as her personal evening surround-sound concert.
She's the only one of my cats that would never eat canned cat food or tuna for that matter. She preferred a scrambled egg with extra virgin olive oil and salt every morning. It was so delicious, she'd lick her bowl absolutely clean. Sometimes she would eat toast or lap up a dish of plain olive oil. I always had to make sure a loaf of bread was out of her reach because she reveled in tearing into a loaf of bread like a tiger might tear into a piece of meat.
Whenever I would vacuum, she would follow me around and get in my way until I would give in and vacuum her gorgeous silvery-gray fur with the brush attachment. She loved it so much that she would sit there for hours and have me groom her if I would. Always curious, kind, and spunky. She would chase the other cats around the house if they got in her way. All the other cats loved and respected Gracie as an elder of their tribe.
Since we've moved to a new town, she's had a hard time mapping a new world out for herself, which seems to have caused an overwhelming amount of stress. Over the past few days, the stress became too much and her illness took over like a flash storm. I could no longer keep her body in balance with any medicine. She was in some unfortunate pain, so death came as a blessing. Now we are left with memories of her that will remain with us forever. Our family will take the inspiration she gave to us and try to find a way to honor and send her into the next existence on a powerfully positive energy stream.
Goodbye Gracie. Thank you for inspiring us all. We love you.
