Shadow

Today, I am thinking about Shadow. Shadow, I miss you. I love you. I wish it hadn't ended so hard, that you didn't have to leave us. That day it rained, it was cold, and my tears rained down my cheeks. Shadow...

Shadow was a kitten, black, the same age as my kittens. Their brother. He had yellow-green eyes, and was fairly small.

Oh, Shadow, why?

FIP, a disease that kills 95% of cats that get it-it's like liquid in the lungs-spread like wildfire through the shelter. It came with one cat, and then spread. The way to tell if a cat has it is drool, snot, inability to drink/eat, etcetera.

This disease killed this cat. It killed others, too, but I remember Shadow most of all. The night he died, I visited him after school. Nobody had been in on that day. I saw the snot on his nose, wiped it off, and force fed him. He was my baby.

I cried when I held him that day. I knew, in my heart, I had come too late.

"Shadow, please don't die," I said, sobbing the whole time.

Shadow never listened. The next morning, Nikki told me he was dead.

Baby, I'll miss you forever.