Good news, bad news

The good news is our friend Kim came out of surgery well. The surgeons looked at another mass that they had been watching for a while, and thankfully it looked benign. I'll update with any info I get. By the way, if you want to read straight from her blog, "Maggie" is in charge of updating it until Kim gets back. Check out "Sing Me Home" in the sidebar over there.

The bad news....I lost my cat today. My Charlie is gone. He was about 9 1/2 years old and suddenly took ill today and died this evening. He is now buried in our backyard. I had him since he was about 8 weeks old, just a little ball of fur. He used to love to curl up under my neck back then and sleep with me. He and our younger cat had been living in our garage for almost 2 years now. I feel guilty that I didn't give him the attention he had when he lived in here with us. I'm trying to hold back feelings of guilt over not being able to help him and not having been there when he actually passed.

He had become quite ornery in his adulthood and really only liked me, but I can't help but be saddened over his loss. I'll miss him....mostly I'll miss the good days I had with him. His kittenhood, his curling up behind my legs to sleep, his purr. He had a way of comforting me when I cried. He'd come up to me with a little meow and put his paw gently on me. After such a good high day yesterday, it's hard to handle this low.

The girls are ok. They didn't really relate to him much since he had been in exile from the house for so long, but they were a little sad. They came out to watch his burial. Zoe said, "I miss you, Chardee." That pretty much said it all.