Saying goodbye to a pet

I didn't want another cat.  I especially didn't want a cat with long hair.  But Chris found "Buffy" on the local shelter website and begged if we could go look at her.  I said fine, but we are NOT coming home with her.  Well......we came home with her. 

Chris fell in love.  And how could I say no?  I mean, he isn't even a cat guy.  But there was something about this one.  We quickly changed her name to Gracie.  I think she even liked it better. ;)

Our hearts were recovering from the loss of our sweet Harry.  He was our first "baby" and we loved him so much.  Gracie sure did help heal that wound.  Now, she was NEVER a cuddly cat.  She hated being picked up and only wanted to be loved on when SHE wanted it.  She was very independent.  A loner.  If she were human, she would be the old lady on the block that the kids would be afraid of.  Not because she would do something mean, but because she was just old and crotchety!  The crotchety part of Gracie's personality is what we loved best!  Especially with the kittens in the house recently.  She was never mean, but the kittens new without incident that they should just stay away.

Everyone that would come into our house and see her would ask how old she was.  She looked old!  You could just tell by looking at her.  She had this weird habit of doing "the running man" in front of the water bowl.  We still don't know why she did this.  It was weird.  But that was our Gracie!

Her hair.  Oh my gosh.  The HAIR!  I HATED the hair!  She would shed something fierce.  She would lose clumps of hair, but never managed to be bald anywhere.  I don't know how something could lose so much hair and continue to shed for years and years!  Gracie's only really bad habit was at night she would lay on my kitchen table.  She knew she couldn't get in trouble for doing it then.  Every.single.morning I would have to come out and clean off the table.

That didn't happen yesterday.

All the years of complaining about it and I was sad yesterday to not have to clean her hair on my table.

I did however find a few clumps on the kitchen floor. What used to bother me, comforted me.

Gracie had a peaceful death.  She lived a great life.  14 years!  She gave a lot of joy and happiness to my family.

We love her.

We will miss her.

We will never forget her.