Goodbye Kç

Back in August of 1995, John got me a kitten at the Houston SPCA for my 22nd birthday. We were engaged, and I had just moved to Houston to do my student teaching. I was moving into an apartment to live by myself (no roommates, no family) for the first and only time in my life. John brought me this precious little calico to keep me company. We named her Kç. (The "ç" is a letter in the Albanian, Kurdish, French, and several other alphabets, called a "cedilla". I had taken a linguistics class in college, and being the nerds that we are, we named our first pet after something from a textbook. Pronounce it in Spanish and you'll get our goofiness.)

This is a page from one of our photo albums, entitled "Memories of Our First Year Together".

Top Left: on the apartment balcony

Top Right: on the dashboard of the car (she used to enjoy car rides)

Bottom Left: on the aquarium in our first apartment together

Bottom Right: smelling John's breath (she loved to do that, especially right after a burp)

This is what she looked like at first - tiny thing!:

Here she is on top of our saltwater aquarium, a perfect expression of "cattitude" on her face.

And here is Kç (Christmas of 2006) at her top weight of 16 pounds. I think this picture sums up her personality perfectly.
Kç went into severe renal failure this week and we had to end her suffering today. She was old and hasn't been perfectly healthy or happy the past couple of years, so I know it's for the best, but we will miss her. She has been a part of our lives for our entire marriage.