Friendship

Dear Edward

~ Tracy Erler ~ Leave a comment

The one where we remember your flufflyness

Note: I wrote this to and about Ed five days after he passed. There has only been a small amount of editing to make more sense sharing this15 months later. Memories have also been added.

Hey buddy. I meant to share this a long time ago. You’re a cat so you have no idea about pictures or blog posts or what humans do when their fluffy loved ones pass one. You don’t need words and pictures shared about you because you were happy and loved and lived your best cat life. This is going live on the anniversary of the day after you moved into The Hobbit Hole with us. It’s very poetic for a writer, but mostly it’s just healing.

You weren’t the kitten we were supposed to bring home.

Alphonse always was.

Ant’s mom sent him a picture of the splotched black and white face long before he was ours. And then, around the time we were going to visit you and future-Alphonse and the rest of the litter—my mother-in-law posted a photo of you on Facebook. I showed your face to Ant and asked, “What about this guy?”

I promise you we only set out to come home with one kitten.

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Fare Thee Well, Ogres*

~ Tracy Erler ~ Leave a comment

I have said “goodbye” and “see you later” and hugged many people tight many times in the past eight months, with more that happened this month. I’ve been mentally preparing to goodbye to some favorite humans officially since last fall, all of us thinking we’d have a year left—I started thinking of lasts and presents and then it sped way up and then mid-March came and we cried and loved the husband-half of this family who is moving across the country. As this goes live, it will have been nine days since we hugged the wife-half and babies a little harder and longer, saying to them, “See you soon.”

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