A Farewell

I've been putting off writing this post for several days now, and I have to say that this is a very hard post to write.

As you all know, Jolie, our sweet Momma Cat, has been living on our porch or outside our front door for about six months now. She's chased off all the stray dogs (so viciously that many are scared to come near our building) and charmed all of our neighbors into feeding her. Jolie quickly became the Green Homes Cat and everyone knew her funny meow, which sounded like she'd been smoking a pack a day for twenty years.

On Saturday night, Jolie fought off a local's dog with her usual style just before we went to sleep. When we fell asleep, she was outside our front door, dozing on the mat. Sadly, our friend Neil found our beloved Jolie next to the building on Sunday morning. We don't know what happened, but we're both heartbroken.

I can't tell you how much I miss her. She was always underfoot, supervising me as I cooked and begging scraps. When we'd offer her a bit, she'd swat it from our fingertips and dive on top of it. When she was happily anticipating food, she'd do this funny little dance- shifting her hind feet around and sticking her tail straight up in the air while twitching it wildly. I cried today when the only kitten we have left did the tail dance.

I think I hear Jolie a dozen times a day, and both Ryan and I still expect her to come bolting in the moment our door is opened. She owned our apartment, you know. We're trying to take comfort in the fact that we took good care of her while we had her. She was well feed and loved and had a good home she would have gone to. We do not know if she fell or was hit by a car. Our landlord was kind enough that he allowed us to bury her in a corner beneath some bushes, so that she can always be near Green Homes. She truly loved it here. This is where she raised her kittens. This is where she could beg food from all of the residents. This is where she lounged for hours on the railings, soaking up the sun and watching the world go by.

We miss our cat, and I'm sure that many of you will miss hearing about her. I wanted so badly to be able to post the day she flew back to the States... but she is home now.