Missy

There are moments in one's life where you are just bumping along doing your normal things and a speed bump gets thrown into the road to remind you to be aware. You try to get your bearings and return to what you're doing but things have changed. The normal is just slightly tweaked where you have to shift your perspective.

Over the course of the last couple of years, Maisie had been losing weight. She used to be a chunky 11 pounds but shrank down to 8. I didn't pay much mind to it because she was too heavy for her frame but when I took her in last September her vet was concerned. Her lab work showed no signs of problems. Then a couple of weeks ago I noticed she was not eating much and would stand by the water bowl. This was unusual, so I took her in. It turned out bad: her

kidneys had failed and she was dying. It was a sudden blow that took me completely by surprise. I decided to euthanise her so that she wouldn't suffer anymore.

Miss Maisie was the duchess of the house. The other cats paid her much respect because she could be fickle in her moods. Her size was no hindrance to her maintaining rule at Chez Runamuck. Even Buster, who outweighed her by a couple of pounds, kept his distance. But she was a loving cat. She didn't like to be held but she loved sitting on my lap or sleeping next to my pillow at night. She loved burrowing in the blankets to snooze. And her fur was the softest I had ever felt.

Goodbye, duchess. Mazola. MissMiss. You are missed here at Chez Runamuck.