Less than Twelve Parsecs

It's hard for me to write about things that hurt. I wrote multiple posts about rough life moments, but they never seem good enough to honor the memory of the one who is missing. So I bottle them up, a hidden journal close to my heart, too fragile to be seen by others' eyes. This post won't be good enough, by far. But it's time to share it, and move on. You might have noticed that we've stopped being responsive to texts/emails/missed calls for multiple weeks this summer. Happy blog posts were put on hold. That's because we have been grieving by day, and searching night, after night, after night. Willow is missing. She's been a happy nighttime-indoor / daytime-outdoor cat for the past 8 years of our lives, she's spent the past 12+ years as part of our family. Willow was pretty much our first "child" and the reason we started using this blog more. We had adopted her as a 3-months-old white fluff ball, with angel looks but devilish behavior. I'...

Q: What's a recipe for endless fun? A: Cute kids and Kittens! That's what we found out this Sunday, visiting our good friends' home. They had adopted two sweet little cats Joey and Pacey (named after the youngsters in Dawson's Creek ). You'll have to guess which is which, both Greg and I got it wrong the first time. Here are some of the sweet moments: Sleepy child wakes up to kitten footsteps. She agrees to calmly go on Mommy's lap on the floor to observe. Unbeknownst to her, another creature also calmly goes on Mommy's lap on the floor to observe. The second lap guest gets 'spotted' (pun intended!) and we hear a squeal of joy.  Kitten starts prowling about. I love the framing of this photo, it lets you feel the scale of things. This is a mini-leopard, hand-sized. If you have small hands.  Kitten expertly decides this Ottoman-to-Windowsill jump is totally doable. It's not.  Other kitten takes brave action in respo...