Cat Hell
 I parted with both of my cats this week, one voluntarily, one not.   The 'not' involved my girl-cat, Fiona, who was diagnosed with some sort of intestinal cancer--bad outlook--and whom we had put to sleep on Monday.   I held her while the shot was administered, and she was gone in seconds.  My big tough husband stood on the vet's porch during this procedure, unable to watch, crying softly.  
Fiona is not pictured here.  She was not very photogenic, and I have only a couple of good pictures of her;  in my favorite, she is curled up in my underwear drawer.  She was a small tortoise-shell, sort of bitchy, but always sweet to me.  She was mostly quiet, but she had a cute vocabulary.  The declarative was 'map', the interrogative was 'mrrr?', and she had a little trill, like 'brrrt', mostly food-related.   I will miss her terribly.

Her step-brother Magick, pictured here, is another story.  Because of our impending move, we had decided to have our friend Sue adopt one or both of our cats, though there was always a chance we would, maybe, keep one.  We would see how our two got along with Sue's resident cat.  I secretly hoped my bitchy Fiona would need to be reclaimed and brought to Sunnyvale, but suddenly that option was lost to me.  Then Magick got very mopey without his companion, and I could only hope that he would adjust to a new girl-cat.  I took him to Sue's on Tuesday, and she is slowly getting the two cats used to each other, giving me daily updates, and it looks like this transition might work.  Sue has had many cats, she has a huge house and many resources, so things are looking up.  I'll be cat-sitting for her a couple of times before we move, so I'll see Magi in his new environment.  It will be a long goodbye.  And I am very hopeful.  But it's been a hell of a week.