I will remember Chess as the Best Cat in the Whole Wide World and one of God's richest blessings.  God made her and threw away the mold.  



She came to me all the way from Scotland.  She survived a dog attack, a copperhead bite to the face, and being smashed under the box springs of a bed by burglars while living with her previous owners.  She also survived having a broken tail connector and being shot by a high powered bb gun.  The last proved to be her biggest challenge as she went from November to February without any sign of healing whatsoever.  She had to be kept in her carrier for 11 months being let out only to eat and go to the bathroom.  Amazingly throughout all of these ordeals and particularly the last one, her sweet and gentle personality remained unchanged.  She was the most loving and gentle cat.  She and I had a mutual admiration society for I feel she adored me every bit as much as I adored her.  I was sick and bedridden for 3 years and she never left my side except to eat or use the litter box. 



When I became well, she followed me everywhere I went, my lap being her favorite place in the world.  She would sit there and allow me to do cross-stitch right over the top of her.  She never EVER tried to grab the thread as it made it's way across her back.  This despite being a very apt huntress.  We saved each other from a copperhead one morning.  I saw the grass move, then Chess jumped, the grass moved again, and Chess jumped.  I charged into the yard to chastise her for chasing the resident frog.  Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a copperhead.  I ran for a hoe, swung and missed the snake.  As it turned on me, Chess moved slightly diverting it's attention and I was able to land a successful blow to either of us.  She seemed to know when I was chatting on the computer.  She usually sat in my lap except when I was chatting, she would set directly between me and the keyboard.  she was a great wrist rest.  I just reached right over her resting my hands on her back, and we were both quite content with that arrangement.  She would occasionally add her two sense to the conversation by hitting a few keys.  Her most notable communication was one day when she managed to type "hi."  



When I started to work, she met me at the door every night then jumped to the top of the sofa.  As I ran my hands over her face and down the length of her seated body, she would put a paw on either side of my neck.  I would scoop her up like a baby and carry her around the house.  We'd visit family members and look out each window, and then I would take her back to the couch and ask her if she was ready to get down.  Sometimes she was but more often than not we'd continue walking around the house for sometimes as long as 15 minutes.  I took her in for her checkup and shots thinking everything was ok, but is wasn't.  Though she seemed fine, she had cancer and was gone in three weeks.  I was devastated and still am.  She was my heart.  She died in my arms.  Life has not been the same since.