Charlie

Charlie was my families first pet. We first thought she was a male cat and named her Charly, but after finding out she was a female, we were already used to the name. So, we decided to go with Charlie, as a short form of Charlotte.

How we got her

At first, my parents were against getting a pet. But one day, a neighbor of ours was cutting some hedges, when he heard faint squeaking. When he looked deeper into the hedge, he saw a pile of kittens! When no mother cat came at the end of the day, they decided to take them in and give them to neighbors that wanted a cat. Even my dad who did not want a cat could say no when he saw those tiny little kittens.

Epilepsy

Unfortunately, Charlie had epilepsy. She had attacks that left her twitching on the ground, screaming in pain. Afterwards she was extremely confused and distraught. We went to the vet with her and got her medication, but for a good while, she did not improve. It came to a point where she didn't even clean herself anymore. It was horrible.

We gave her all the love and affection we could and suprisingly, things improved. She stopped having epileptic attacks as the medicine seemed to have finally gotten a hold and she started to clean herself again.

Departures

She was an outdoor cat through and through, loving to roam her perimeter, playing, sunbathing and rolling in the dirt. All that sort of stuff. When we called her, she always came running to us eventually, which made getting her in for the night quite easy. Most of the time at least. One evening, we called her and she was nowhere to be seen. The next day, she wasn't at the door waiting, as she normally does when she spend the night outside. We were pretty worried and after a week gone, gave up hope. We thought she must have had a stroke somewhere, or a fox got her or something. Especially since she obviously didn't take her medicine in the time she was gone. It was very hard and we cried and mourned.

Then, one day, my mother looked outside and there she was. Walking slowly towards her like nothing happened. My mother, of course, bawled her eyes out and when we got home, we did too. She looked a bit scuffed and thinner than before, but besides that, she had no injuries and acted like she never left.

Then, roughly two years later, she left again. We were less worried this time, given that she already went on vacation before, but this time, there was no return. Weeks went by with no sign of here. We looked all around the neighborhood, looked for online posts for found cats, talked to people if they might have seen her, but there was nothing. I tried to keep my hopes up but after months, it slowly started to sink in. Charlie was gone, never to return. And that's the end of her story.

Appreciation

Charlie was family. We all loved her with all of our hearts. She was a very playful cat, but extremely affectionate aswell. She loved cuddling and snuggling and her purrs were extremely loud. We loved her and she loved us. It was beautiful.

We try to look at her life in a positive light. She had a rough start with her epilepsy, but we gave her a good four years of life. She was well fed, well loved, had lots of toys and space and a lot of nature to explore. We gave her a good life, even if it was short. And she gave us the world in return. I still tear up thinking about her, even right now writing about her, but in the end? I'm happy we had her and that she had us. I'm happy she was able to overcome her illness and have a good life. I'm happy she was part of mine and gave me an incredible amount of happiness, as well as to my family.

Rest in Peace Charlie, I hope you'll get all the pets and treats you want in heaven. And maybe if you're lucky, mice go to heaven aswell.