“That’s it”, she muttered,
“we’re getting a cat”
as the momma rat
and her three babies
ran down her arm
from the spice cabinet
in the old house.

The rats were actually
kind of cute
and if they had
stayed down by the river
well, that would be one thing.

We had tried non-lethal
approaches to rat removal
to no avail.

And so,
Reilly came into our lives.

He had been rescued on St. Patrick’s Day
after living outside so long
that his hair was too matted
to be saved
so he became our
hairless Maine Coon cat.

When we went to visit the cat lady
in a house full of Maine Coons
it was pretty clear that he was the one
by the way he interacted
with our youngest daughter.

After a decade
and a few different houses
he retired from mousing
and became a lapwarmer
as a new rescue
took over the mousing duties.

When he started vomiting last night
I thought he had just eaten something bad
or maybe caught some stomach bug.

In the morning
when he let out plaintive mews
between his panting
I figured it was something worse.

The vet said it was his heart
and there was nothing we could do.