Content Warning: Pet death
Those of you who have never owned a pet may not understand why, to some people, losing one is akin to losing a family member. And I’ll admit, it certainly depends on the pet; I’ve always had animals around me in life, and while I loved them all, some departures hit harder than others. Circumstances certainly vary.
Coral was my cat. She was also my best friend. She practically lived in my room during her later years. Sadly, after many gradually declining health problems, we had to make the impossible decision earlier this month to take her to the vets and help her to her sleep. Reaching that decision and coming to grips with life without her has been one of the most difficult challenges I’ve encountered. But at the end, I was there for her, it was peaceful, and it was the right thing to do.
It’s been a pretty sad month! But no matter how sad I’ve been these last few weeks, it doesn’t come close to overshadowing the many years of love and happiness this cat gave us. Given that this monthly blog series is a part of The Tombstone Project, which is all about immortalising (or as close to it) life memories in writing, I’m going to dedicate this month to telling you my favourite things about Coral.
As a kitten, she had extreme zooms. It was legitimately difficult to follow her with the naked eye if she was bounding around a room at top speed, as she often was. She was also – not to speak ill of the departed – a constant thorn in her older brother’s side. She wouldn’t leave him alone!
She was only a few years old when she returned from some outdoor escapades and gifted us – after some time – with four different breeds of kitten! (Ruh roh, we made sure that didn’t happen again.) One was ginger – Garfield – one was tabby – Theo – one was tortoiseshell – Willow – and one was black and white, Moomin. They all found loving homes, the last of which was with us!
As she grew older and the house got less… crowded with animals, she began to mellow out. While she always loved playing with toys, she also began to give some amazing hugs. Legitimately, if you picked her up, she would often wrap you in a full body hug. As in, she would be the one squeezing. She would also climb under my covers and sleep next to me for entire nights at a time, resulting in many cosy nights.
Well, anyway. Fortunately I took a ton of pictures and videos of this kitty over the years. Here’s a couple of those for you to get a sense of her, if you were unfamiliar.
You can doubtless find more if you head to Twitter and search for tweets from the account Kritigri with words including “Coral”, “catposting”, “kitty”, that kind of thing.
In other, less heartbreaking news
I have pre-ordered an Xbox Series S! If you’d like to learn more about the decisions that led to my first ever Xbox console acquisition, or the titles I’m excited to play, check out my gaming blog.
I’ve also spent this month getting nostalgic about the Playstation 1, enjoying the Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection, continuing the hype train that is the lead-up to the next World of Warcraft expansion, and other things designed to distract my brain!
Next month will be less sad.
Perpetually Perturbed 