Miss Mary

Two weeks after I became a pastor in 2001, I celebrated my 25th birthday and my present from Daryl was to go pick out a cat at Petsmart. I picked out Miss Mary, a 1 year old Lynx Point Siamese cat. She'd already had a litter of kittens before being turned into the animal shelter. She was so beautiful and so soft and purred so much. We think she lived with dogs in her first year before we got her, because Mary ran to the door when the doorbell rang and also played fetch. 

Mary was very much a princess cat. She did not like to be picked up or held, but she adored sitting on you or sitting right next to you and getting petted. If you stopped before she was done, she would just headbutt your hand until you started up again. 

She was a very faithful companion over the last seventeen years, through three moves, adding three kids and other pets. She was always miffed at the entrance of a new person or pet into the house and sometimes it would take her months of the cold shoulder before she would forgive us. Once she got used to the boys, she would follow me around in the mornings and hop up on kids's beds and help me wake them up. The boys all adored her. They would try to coax her onto their beds at night. They called her Jingle Bells because of the noise that the bells on her collar made. 

In the last couple of years since we got the dog, Mary had become Daryl's cat. She would sit on him every single night and most night he would get a cat bath as she licked his arm hair or leg hair. When Daryl was out of town, she wouldn't even share the same couch with me, instead sitting across the living room with her back towards me! She had also decided that the previous rules of the house no longer applied to her and it wasn't unusual to come home and find her on the dining room table or the kitchen counter.

Mary had gotten much slower in the last few months and in the last few days she was noticeably ill. We had an appointment this week for her at the vet, but when we came home on Tuesday night it was clear that Mary was not in good shape and probably would not make it through the night. We didn't want her to be in any pain and so we took her to the after hours vet as a family to be put to sleep. We're all having a bit of a hard time - the boys do not remember life without a Miss Mary around.

We're thankful for our furry girl and all our great memories. She will definitely be missed.