Miss Audrey Hepburn

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The time seems right now to introduce you to Audrey. Audrey was my beautiful cat, and Jake's sister, who died of breast cancer in June. This October she would have been 13. I got Audrey when she was just a tiny little thing. I never had cats before. I thought they were boring. My whole life, I had only had dogs. I was actually terribly allergic to cats. During a difficult time in my life a co-worker of mine told me. "You need a cat!" I told her she was crazy but one evening I found myself defiant but curious driving over to her house. There was the little kitten that would become my Audrey. Her neighbor had the cat that gave birth to this beautiful kitten. She was the last one of the litter. My friend picked her up and put her on my chest. Audrey dug her nails in and became like a brooch on my sweater! We both agreed she was so beautiful and had such an elegance to her. I was still fighting it but then I found myself trying to come up with a name. I was thinking of elegant women......Jackie O, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn. Hmmm......Audrey..... Then suddenly my friend said "How about Audrey?" and that was it! Something told me this was meant to be. Before I knew it I was driving home with little Audrey in a little cardboard box with a baggie full of litter and a baggie full of food. I had NO idea how to take care of a cat. Worse, I lived in an apartment at the time with a NO PETS rule! I was going to have to sneak her in!!

Audrey became one of those pets that you totally over-bond to. She was my soul mate. We were so in tune with each other. Just one look and she knew what I was thinking. I would only have to make the slightest sound for her to appear or react. She was so vocal and was always talking to me. She loved to talk on the phone to my mother! Trust me on that one - my mother and I used to get the biggest kick out of it. She and Frank used to talk on the phone with each other too!! God only knows what they were saying! She made me laugh. She protected me. She lived for me.

I never let Audrey outside. She was clean, vibrant and healthy with glowing eyes and a shiny coat. I fed her well and she never had a sick day in her life. She was always in my lap. She slept on my head or at my side. I always believed that she would be one of those cats that would live to be 20. Imagine my shock one day when I was petting her and found a lump on her belly. By the time that lump made itself known, the cancer had already spread. There was nothing that could be done. Three months later she was gone.

Those three months before she left me were torture. I cried buckets. I couldn't work. I couldn't eat or sleep. I spent every moment I could with her...holding her....talking to her. Telling her how much I loved her. Everything that had been off limits was now totally available to her. She slept in the linen closet, in my closet, she went outside, she laid on the patio sofa and basked in the sun. She ate fancy feast, tuna, turkey, chicken, sliced lunch meats, baby food and pounds of treats. She had been my siamese twin and my best friend for almost 13 years. She went through some of the biggest changes in my life with me; the good and the bad. We were a team. How was I going to exist without her?

The hardest part of owning a pet is that their time on this earth with us is so short and knowing that one day, long before we think we will ever be ready, they will leave us. And that sometimes we are the ones that have to make that final decision for both of us. No pet will ever replace Audrey. She was one in a million. The loss of her presence in my home is still palpable. The good that came of it was that it allowed me the opportunity to rescue another animal and start the cycle all over again. If it wasn't for Audrey, I wouldn't have Edie. And another chapter in my life begins.....