A lovely cat named "Sweet-Young"

I know it has been awhile since I made a posting.  I guess I needed some motivation. Well, a beautiful cat named "Sweet-Young" is my motivation tonight.

This sweet, gentle cat came into my life sixteen years ago and she left it four days ago.

I often told her, especially during these last months, how I fell in love with her at first sight.  A colony of homeless cats came to my attention those sixteen years ago and as I tried to help them, it became necessary to give them descriptive names and I often referred to her as the "sweet, young one".  The name stuck although I was embarrassed at the vet clinic and changed it to Tamu (which means "sweet" in Swahili).  Mind you, that was only for their files because she always remained "Sweet-Young" to me.  And she always remained sweet  - but alas, not young.

Her gentle nature was evident through all the years and through all the turmoil of bringing in homeless strays to live with us.  She often took a young one "under her wing" and became a surrogate mother.

One such kitten was a tiny black and white one that I named Darcy.  Darcy grew up to be a tall, handsome cat and he fell in love with her as hard as I did.  Although she was becoming more delicate these last few months, she never rebuffed his loving advances of face rubbing and cuddling although the look on her face betrayed her dismay on occasion and I had to intervene so as to give her some peace.

Darcy and I are both missing her terribly.