Je T'aime

Je T'aime was our wonderful boy
who never failed to make us
laugh. He would purr so loud that
we often could hear him clear in
another room. So enamoured was
he of our make-up brushes that we

got him his own. If he saw one of us
poised in front of the mirror, he
would retrieve his brush and joyfully
toss it up in the air, perhaps thinking
he was demonstrating to us its
proper use. (And somewhat
dismayed that we never quite caught
on.)

The result of an "oops" litter, from a
clandenstine meeting between Lacey
and Belle, Je T'aime seemed to inherit
both their best qualities. He had Belle's
smarts and love for entertaining us with
his antics. From Lacey, he got his
good-natured, affable personality.

Like Lacey, he just never
seemed to have a bad day.

Until a few days shortly before
his first birthday, he had the
worst day imaginable. Not
eating and withdrawn, we
immediately knew something
was wrong. With any of our
other cats, it might not have
caused such concern but this
was so markedly different from
Je T'aime's normal behavior.

We immediately rushed him to the
vet's where he overnighted for
several days. Thinking it was safe
to bring him back home, he expired
in transit. Post-mortem testing
revealed that a rare, fast-acting
virus had affected his lungs. None
of our other cats tested positive or
showed any symptons.

To have a healthy loving cat one
day and lying limp in your arms the
next is bitter medicine. We still
can't make sense of it, and simply
have had to try to come to terms
that reality sometimes doesn't
make sense.

So often we are contacted by families grieving the loss of their Snowshoes. We
would never claim that our kittens could replace their beloved family member. We
know how special and unique each cat is that comes into ones life. Each in their
own way makes them brighter, more rich, more worthwhile. We can't put into
words what Je T'aime gave us, but we can honestly tell these grieving families: We
understand.