Tasha was a all black long hair domestic cat with bright green eyes. I was lucky enough to have had Tasha for 12 yrs from the time I watched 2 young punks slow down just enough to toss a black kitten & 2 gray kittens from their side door of VW bus into a dirt parking lot. Then they sped off without a care how these poor little creatures would survive. All 3 were hundled together behind a wheel of a tractor trailer that had been parked there (the only refuge for these babies to go to). I found homes for the 2 gray females but kept the black kitten.

Tasha had a litter of her own when she was 2-3 yrs old. 5 all-black kittens unique in their own way. With personalities to boot!! What a hoot raising all of them. An experience I’ll never forget. It’s the only time I was ever given a dozen red roses for mothers day. (Since I don’t have children of my own). “I said, “I’m not a mother” My boyfriend at the time said, “You’ve raised 5 kittens, You are a Mother”!!

Tasha was the smartest & classiest cat I’ve ever had. She was a good mother, a great hunter, good listener & chronic snuggle bunny. I will miss that the most. Every nite she would curl up on my left side hip and stay there all night long. She was there when I went to sleep & she would be there when the alarm would go off in the morning. Naps were the same way.

About 6 wks ago she started to make these hacking noises, the same noises she would make coughing up a hairball. She started hacking more frequently and after a couple of weeks of this, I thought some laxatone would help get up that hairball. After about a week of giving her the laxatone every other day, the hacking still persisted. So by this time 3 wks have gone by & I decided to take her to the emergency room for what I’m thinking is a stuck hairball and come to find out she hasn’t been hacking but coughing due to Tumors in her lungs. I just wasnt ready for news such bleak in nature. I felt like such a shmuck & a terrible mother for thinking that it was a stuck hairball & come to find out it’s cancer.

Her eyes were still so clear & she was still eating, drinking & using the litterbox normally. I didn’t have the heart to put her down then. The vet said that it was too far advanced & treatment was extremely costly. Which I barely had the funds to pay for the x-rays. I think I was just hoping for a miracle. If I just brought her home & gave her some medication she was just gonna get better. I was able to spend another couple of weeks with her. She wasn’t in any pain just a lot of discomfort from trying to breathe. She had lost so much weight & since sunday wasn’t eating or drinking hardly at all.

I knew when I came home for lunch this afternoon that I was gonna have to take her to the Vet & to say goodbye. Her eyes were starting glaze from straining to breathe. I know what that feels like when you can’t breathe & fighting for each breathe you take. So, after work I mustered up as much courage as I could to say my goodbyes & be there for her when the Vet put her down. It’s one of the or if not The Hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I just can’t believe that 12 yrs have passed by and it just didn’t seem long enough. It was so quiet in the room.. she didn’t make a sound (not that I thought she would, being the classy lady she was). Now she slumbers so peacefully.

I’m lucky enough to have friends that live up in the mountains and were nice enough to let me bury her on their land. I know she will love it there!! All the birds & open land to call her own.

We will see each other again Tashy!! I love you!!