This weekend I lost a very special friend.

Mercury, who I considered to be my feline soulmate in many ways, was killed by a car right outside our house.

I didn’t want her to be an outdoor cat, even the part-time status she had, for that very reason.  But Mercury had a free spirit and a mind of her own, and she demanded again and again to go outside after we moved to the new house.

We let her out to make her happy, first thinking we had the yard adequately blocked off so she would stay within our fences.

That turned out to be not the case, as she immediately figured out how to jump over it… but she adapted so well, and was so at peace when she was allowed outside, that we couldn’t say no — no matter how much I tried to.

It’s that age-old dilemma: do you try to protect what you love by keeping it close, possibly smothering it in the process… or do you let it be free, both to happily do what it loves, and to also possibly make mistakes?

Well, we also knew that with Konan on the way, it would never work to force Mercury to stay indoors.  She would either demand more attention than we were able to give her with a new baby in the house, or be miserable, or both.

So we let her have her way.

And despite how it turned out, I know she appreciated it very much…

>>> CONTINUE READING Farewell, My Special Friend…