Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm not Irish, so don't try kissing me; I might have to slap you. Haha. I'm just kidding. But seriously don't try to kiss me. Got it? Good.

St. Patrick's day has not always been a great, happy day for me. I'm not saying today was happy or anything, but it was normal like every day. And every day is usually a great, happy day for me. That is usually.

About 4 years ago, on St. Patrick's Day, I left school twice during the day. One of the times was a great thing: I got my palette expander off, so I could continue with my braces. That happened during the morning hours. But then during the afternoon, I got called back down to the office to see my mom crying out in the hallway. She wanted to take me to the vet with her where our cat, Fred, was. He wasn't doing so well and my mom wanted to let me say goodbye to him because we were going to put him down.

Here's what I said on March 17, 2005 in my journal:

I have been bombarded by so much this week. I got my expander off. Fred was put to sleep today. He has been sick lately. I was worried last night that he had gotten hit by a car. The vet said that cats will usually find a place to die outside. My mom says the reason Fred probably came back is that he wasn't ready to die. I thought maybe he wanted to let me say goodbye. We are going to bury him probably where we buried Oliver and D.C. I really miss him. I wasn't ready for him to go yet. Maybe God had special plans for him. I miss him so much. They called a while ago to tell us about the autopsy. He said that when he opened up the body, there was a foul smelling pus that was leaking out. He doesn't know what it is, but he said he would look it up. My mom is picking up Fred's remains on Monday. I love that cat so much. I don't know what I'll do without him. He was my best friend. Just like D.C. was. There was no way to save Fred. He was dying. His lungs were bad and he had a tumor.

This is the first year in a long time that I have teared up reading that.

I hadn't thought that I was ready for him to go yet, but God knows best. Sometimes He pulls animals and people out of our lives, but we shouldn't get too down because He always brings someone to replace that empty space in our heart. When we face situations like this, we need to remember what God promises us. He has plans to help us and not to harm us according to Jeremiah.

What can we do when this kind of thing happens to us? I think we just have to move on. It took me a while to get over Fred and with me welling up, I think I'm still missing him. For the most part though, I've moved on. Every time, we lose a cat, we usually get a new cat. When we lost Fred, we already had a kitten, Max. Max is one of my greatest companions now. He's up there on the list with Fred and D.C. for sure. I love Max.

What I love so much about cats is that each one that you get has a different personality. We have one cat, Leo, who seems so greedy and always wanting food. Then there's Max, who is completely humble and really patient. He's also really good with children. Max, like so many of my past cats, loves the family business too. He enjoys being out in our greenhouses or lying around in our basement under our heat lamps. Then there's Flabby Gabby Annoying Abby or Abby for short. She's the newest kitten we got over the summer by accident. She copies the other two cats. If Leo is crying, she'll cry too. She even learned a trick from Max. Max has a tendency to scoop his wet food out of the dish when he can't reach it with his tongue. It's really cool.

I'm sorry if this story saddens you, but every year on this day, I just like to remember one of my favorite cats. I hope you all have a great St. Patrick's Day!