Good bye to our old girl

Dear Nick,

Saying so long to our Ter-Ter has been way harder than we expected, hasn't it?

She was crotchety from the very beginning. No one liked her and she liked no one. Except that she liked the two of us -- and you the best.

Before we got Ter-Ter, you had never loved a pet. And you loved her right away. We both did and somehow, it's now 14 years later and it hurts to be letting her go.

Ter-Ter has been around since the dawn of our marriage. As soon as we settled in that first 650-square-foot apartment in Corpus Christi, we were ready to fulfill our relationship-long dream of pet ownership.

We found our sweet girl curled in the corner of her cage at Pet Smart looking vulnerable and meek. She needed rescuing and we wanted desperately to be her saviors. We bought a carrying crate, a bag of kitten food and a toy rat and we became a family of three.

That first year, she climbed our Christmas tree while we slept, got it swaying and took the whole thing down. She tried to escape the house at least once and we moved twice.

Somewhere along the way we thought she needed a friend (or you and I wanted another feline baby to stave off our real urge to have a human baby) and we adopted Zuzu.

She was cute, wasn't she?

Remember how the two of them equally loved and despised each other? Even to this day?

When we had a real human baby, Ter-Ter was moderately amused and somewhat put off.

There came more babies, and more moves and Ter-Ter was with us always. She'd take up residence on our bed at night and would wake with you every morning to lick your chin just as soon as your alarm clicked on.

She snuggled extra close to me while I was pregnant and while you were away on deployment and she was nothing if not faithful to the very end.

The end has been swift and bitter and we realized this week that we weren't ready to part ways. But she was ready to go.

The kids don't know how to be appropriately sympathetic and it's understandable. We both know they're thinking this brings them one step closer to getting a dog. 

They weren't around in the beginning and they never knew why we loved her.

But you and I do. She represents the beginning of us and our steadfast care of her has paralleled our steadfast care for each other and now for our family.

Today, we had no intention of slowing down, but she needed to stop. So here's where Ter-Ter ends and we keep going.

Let's make it a quick good-bye, then, or I'll start to cry all over again, like the mess I turned into at the vet's office this morning.

"Terry McGillicuddy Gamiz, you were a fine kitty cat and we're really going to miss you."

It's true. We already do. Don't we, Nick?

I love you!

D