With great sorrow, we had to have our cat put to sleep last Monday.  We had adopted her from an animal shelter and from the best we could tell, she was entering her twentieth year.  She had been my constant companion; the children called her "Mom's Shadow".  She was extremely well behaved.  She was good with the kids, although she loved to terrorize them when they were smaller.  I wish I had more pictures of the really funny stuff.  Like the time I woke up and found yarn strung throughout the house.  She acted perfectly innocent, but I knew better!  She loved to play fetch.  Slipper especially enjoyed interrupting our school day.  Sometimes she had an uncanny knack for joining our unit celebrations as a historical kitty right on cue!  A year ago she started her first person (I mean kitty) historical interpretation of Theodore Roosevelt.  To the very end, she was capable of warming our hearts and putting smiles on our faces.  Making the decision to put her to sleep was especially difficult because she continued to have a strong spirit, even though her body finally wore out.  The children kept asking how that could be possible.  I said it was love. 

     Anyone who has lost a pet, especially with children in the house, can imagine how the day went.  My husband felt like the bad guy for taking her to the vet.  My daughter let the tears flow.  My son was full of questions.  Lots of questions.  Difficult questions. Of course I've been weepy too. 

     When my husband came home from the vet, we gathered on the couch and talked about...well...I don't know what.  My husband recalled the kids squeezing the stuffing out of the cat, like Peter Rabbit that we used to read to the kids.  I had to think about that a moment then I realized what he meant. He was actually thinking of The Velveteen Rabbit, one of my favorite children's books.  We no longer have the book, since it eventually fell apart.  I told the family what I recalled of the story.  The Velveteen Rabbit was a stuffed animal.  In the nursery, the Velveteen Rabbit asked the rocking horse how a toy becomes real.  "Oh a toy is real when all of it's fur is rubbed off like mine.  The boy has made me real." "Ahhh," thought the rabbit, as he looked upon the worn old horse.  The Velveteen Rabbit hoped that one day he too would become real.  The boy played with the rabbit every day.  One day, the rabbit realized much of his fur had been worn off.  Oh, he was delighted.  Now he was real.  Then for a period of time, he did not get to play with the boy.  He found out that the boy was very sick and actually near death, so none of the toys were being played with.  One day, the nurse got the rabbit and laid him in bed with the sick boy.  Oh how hot the boy was.  Raging hot. But the rabbit did not care.  He loved the boy and hoped that by being near him he could comfort the boy in his illness.  One day the fever broke and the boy was getting better.  At that time, the doctor told the nurse that she had to burn all of the bedding and everything that was in the bed, to kill the dangerously contagious germs.  Into the burn pile the Velveteen Rabbit was tossed.  As the fire was being lit, a fairy came down and rescued the rabbit.  She set him down on the lawn and told him to try out his new legs, for now he was real because of the boy's love for him. At that moment tears and cries of sorrow broke out from my family.  While we dab our tears, perhaps you'd like to share some of the happy memories we have of Slipper kitty.