Bertye Love

We adopted a pair of kitties 16 years ago. Mattie and Bertye were sisters, litter mates, never apart for a single day for their entire lives! They were not really pals, and did not "hang out" together. Mattie was beautiful but bitchy. She hissed at everyone she met. She only liked me, but I'm not sure she liked me that much. But I was all she had. My husband never really got along with her.
She was the Alpha kitty, and bossed Bertye around, taking over favorite nap spots at will, or butting in during a play session. After a brief illness, Mattie died in her sleep this past March. She made it easy for us, went on her own terms. Because she was harder to love, her loss was not too difficult for us. I shed some tears for her, but I was mostly relieved that she did not suffer too much.

Bertye, on the other hand was a happy-go-lucky kind of girl. She was a typical cat, and only liked to be touched on her terms, but she was very affectionate when she was in the mood She loved to play - she could jump so high! Huge eyes that never looked away, she was so pretty. Only after she was diagnosed with bone cancer did she start to slow down. The cancer was in her foot, so she did not have a choice. In my heart, I was really hoping she'd just not wake up some morning, like her sister did, but she kept going. Her foot finally got to the point that she seemed to be suffering and we did what we knew we had to do. Late last month, we took her to the doctor, to have her suffering ended.
We are going to miss her beautiful eyes, her loud meow, her soft fur, her terracotta nose....

RIP Bertye Love.