Angie

This is hard
to write, but I want to spend today to honor one of the best friends I’ve ever
had. This is a good way to do it, available to anyone who wants to read it but
not flung into the public eye as a cry for attention. I don’t want attention
for this, I don’t particularly want to talk about it with anyone right now. I
just want a recording of my thoughts on this matter, right now, as I have them.
Angie was put down at 9 AM this morning. I held her head in
my hand as she exhaled her last warm breath across my fingers. I always thought
I would want her final moments to be at home, but she was not afraid, she didn’t
fight or seem uncomfortable. She was telling us that she was ready and held
herself with grace and gentleness at every moment.
When I look back on her, I won’t remember the sunken eyed,
limp animal that we came home to last night. I’ll remember the proud, majestic,
mystical, patient, pretentious, judgemental, particular, stranger-loving,
machine-gun-purring, epically bearded miniature lion that I was lucky enough to
call my friend for 13 years. I used to be a little embarrassed about the number of photos I took of her and drawings I did of her, but now those things are a blessing that I could never have never imagined at the time, captured in her finer moments. It was hard at first to go through these pictures and know, so definitively, that I would never touch her soft fur again and feel the rumble of her pur, but the more I looked the happier I got that I have them because now, for as long as I’m around, the memories and times spent with her will be kept sacred and undying.

She is the coolest, she always will be, and I won’t
ever let her fade into obscurity.

Ride the wind, my girl. I’ll see you later, in your tranquil
new home of a bright sun and gentle breeze.

July 5th 2008 – April 19th 2022 –
beyond