Our beloved Maxie passed away June 12th at the age of 16. My husband and I got him as a kitten when he was 3 weeks old from a friend who found him & his brother & sisters huddled near his mother, who had died in the woods near her home. She managed to find homes for the rest of the litter except for Max. She asked me to please take him. It took some work but I managed to convince my husband to let me keep him. 



The poor baby's eyes weren't even open yet, and he was so small he fit in the palm of my hand. I had to feed him kitten formula with an eye dropper, and he slept in a shoe box by my bed for the first several weeks. I carried him around the house in a sling I made out of a shawl, so that he could be close to my chest and warm as he would have been with his real mother. I think this is what created the bond between us -- I feel like he really thought I was his mother, and he has always been my baby.



We had 16 wonderful years with him. Just in the past few months, we could tell he was starting to feel his age. He no longer dashed up and down the stairs as he used to, and sat and thought for a while before he jumped up on beds. He was embarrassed when he could no longer make it up there without help. And then suddenly in June, he started limping badly. We took him to the vet, who said it was arthritis and that his heart/lungs sounded fine. Two days later, he couldn't walk. All he did was lay on the floor, making a rattling sound in his nose, occasionally lifting his head to look at me with sad, tired eyes. I knew that it was his time. We returned to the vet, who told us he had suffered a stroke. Rather than see him suffer any more, we made the loving decision to help him go across the Rainbow Bridge.



I held him and kissed him as the vet gave him his injection. I couldn't stop crying, but I knew we were doing the right thing. He took a few shallow breaths, then one deep one and he was gone.



He will never truly be gone, though -- he will live in my heart forever.



I love you, Maxie, and I know I will see you again someday.



>^. .^<