Darcy

This photograph of the beautiful eyes of my cat Darcy was taken 10 years ago.  I had to say goodbye to that lovely face yesterday.  We were together for seventeen precious years.  In the last few years he was diagnosed with kidney disease and I realized that in these last few days it had reached a stage whereby his quality of life was diminishing rapidly.

I am always worried about the timing of euthanasia being too early or too late.  I would rather err on the side of too early.  I know Darcy could have lived another few weeks but I could see a change in his expression and his body was losing weight rapidly and weakness was setting in.  

A few words about this handsome cat...

Darcy came into my home as a kitten rescued from the outdoors along with his two sisters.  The sisters were adopted out but Darcy was not, so he became my cat.  

He was a fellow of strong emotions - he loved and he hated.  

His big love was for one of my other cats - a beautiful, gentle tabby named Sweet-Young and he cuddled with her every chance he got.  You could almost see the love in his eyes.

His "play-fighting" mate was Cricket and they had "fierce" wrestling matches (that he usually lost to the smaller Cricket)!  He also would cuddle up to her on occasion as shown in a photo below.  

His hatred was saved for Willow and I don't know where it came from but it necessitated a constant separation of the two.  It was his only fault. :-) 

I would like to try to show the beauty of Darcy in these few photos.  

Darcy with Cricket

Those amazing eyes again!

This is my last photograph of Darcy, taken nine days ago.