Olive was the last kitty to join our family before we realized we had enough kitties. Andy was in school in California, and for some reason he decided it would be good to browse the humane society web site in Michigan. One day he told me about a little gray kitty who needed a family. I don’t remember if he was about to come for a visit or if he was on his way home for good, but he came home and the little gray kitty was still at the shelter. She was already grown up, and her info card said she came from a house with lots of other cats. Her tail was just a little stub that waggled when she was happy. We figured if she was used to lots of other cats, she’d do well as a ninth cat at our place. We took her home and named her Olive.

Olive was always pretty quiet. She didn’t get into trouble or do any neat tricks. She did like to sleep in the bed with us, but for the most part she stayed to herself.

Back in January she began to slow down. She started to lose weight and we took her to the vet. We hoped she’d perk up after the vet removed a bad tooth, but she didn’t really. She stopped going downstairs. Eventually she spent most of her time snoozing on the couch, walking to the kitchen for water, and hanging out in the bathroom hoping for food time. We finally realized she had gone blind and was almost deaf, too. She kept getting thinner and thinner. Her body started to shut down a few weeks ago when we noticed her drinking large amounts of water and leaving many puddles about. We decided yesterday that it was time, so this afternoon we all took her to the vet and gave her hugs and kisses and said goodbye. Andy made her a spot in our pet garden and found a nice rock to mark her place.

Night, night Ollie.