Sugar

We buried Sugar today ....


I am a Junior at McMurry University, engaged to this wonderful guy. Unknown to me he has been planning this great gift 3 months before. His family has found a litter of kittens in the wood pile. They manage to catch one, the runt, a little black and white female. Over the course of the next months, the "Roddy kids" proceed to tame this wild cat. When they are not playing or feeding the thing it lives in a cage outside. An especially heavy rain comes through,
the mom thinks she hears a faint meowing and remembers that the cat is still outside in the cage. They all run outside to rescue the cat to discover she is not only very wet but almost drowned as the cage is right under the eave of the house where a waterfall is washing over her. Thankfully she has 8 more lives to spare.

This wonderful guy and I are married and the wild cat, Sugar, is our first born companion. We are always amused at her antics: playing fetch with the shower loofah, dropping q-tips in the toilet to watch them sink, reaching under closed doors with her furry declawed paws (she hates to be left out), sleeping on the highest peak of the bed (usually Jason's hip). A funny thing about Sugar, even though Jason is the one who feeds her, lets her out at night, changes her litter box...I am the one she loves. If given a choice, she will sit in my lap everytime. I am the one she will come to when she is prowling outside. I need only say her name in a whisper "Shuga-Shuga" and she comes running. She speaks when spoken to and rubs against the nearest door post or furniture leg to show her contentment.

More pets and children are added to the family. Sugar manages to stake her claim on the family. She molds herself to fit in. The dog just needs an occasional swipe across the nose to keep her at bay. The kids just need an occasional warning bite on the hand when they are being too rough or scratching too low below the collar. Let's not forget the time that after many spurned attempts at waking me in the middle of the night to go outside, she simply took care of her business ON ME. Boy that got my attention at 3am! She only did it once but I learned my lesson.

She was a great cat as far as cats go. Even Luke liked her and he's never met a cat he likes. I loved that cat.

....and as I am crying in the car on the way home after only finding out the news, Emma begins to cry as well. "Emma, what's wrong baby?" "I miss my bunny!" Wow, how long has she been trying to processs that? We take the next few minutes to talk about mortality and eternity and the God who loves us and is waiting for us and can't wait to see us. But all in His time. And who knows, maybe my heaven and Emma's heaven will include Sugar and Little Bill. Not for the sake of the animals but for ours.