Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cat

I put down Ayla yesterday. She had gone from being a fatso to all skin and bones within a matter of weeks and she's already had 16 lazy and fattening years so we decided that before she got so weak she couldn't walk (like how Ashley got) we'd take care of it now.

I got Ayla when I first moved up here from L.A. 16 years ago. She was a tax baby, and I got her in June 1991. For the first year, because I didn't have the money to fix her, I viewed her as the most annoying cat. When I got her fixed, my outlook on her changed. She was the sweetest cat, NEVER getting upset at anything, even when Ashley was being a total bitch to her.

Ayla and I never bonded the way Ashley and I did, but I think there was a feral quality to Ayla. She NEVER became a lap cat - whenever her legs left the ground NOT of her own volition, they automatically became splayed and her claws out. And if she land in your lap, she'd hop off within microseconds.

She was the first cat that I knew fetched. And it's because of her that we taught Gizi to fetch. Yesterday at the vets, they kept calling a sweet old lady and I just wanted to yell out, she's not a sweet old lady, she's my little one. Only she wasn't anymore. They were right. She did grow into a sweet old lady and now she's with her pal Ashley. I just hope Ashley won't pick on her too much.