Saying goodbye to our best buddy is as difficult as we knew it would be, given that your daily routines were so entwined in our own lives. From that first night as our headlights caught the wary eyes of a tiny 7-8 week-old fur ball, all tail and tipped ears, along the side of our long driveway, to your last peaceful breath in our arms, you changed our lives immeasurably. We didn't know that we had so much love to share in giving to you, but you brought it out naturally. I think it was because, as frightened as you were by every little noise or other living creature -- human or otherwise -- you came immediately up to us in the courtyard that second morning as if to say, "Thank God, I finally found you." From that point on we knew, I guess, that you'd eventually work your way into our home and take up residence in our hearts. Imagine the surprise, to this day, for one of us who never understood the pet-human connection he observed in others. He "gets it" now. We still will see you where you should be. So many predictable routines were important to you. In the morning when you'd jump up on the bed and nudge us or do the familiar paw-paw. When you would lead us to your food bowl for breakfast and dinner. When you would feel the need for a special treat and reach up to the refrigerator door, and then when we'd open it, you'd actually jump up in to tap the drawer containing the item you'd want. Or when you'd like to go to the courtyard, and you'd go stand on your hindlegs at the door so you could paw the doorknob as if to remind us that was how we could go outside. How you loved that courtyard where you spent most of the first months of your life until we moved you inside after you injured your leg. We'll see you, too, as we come home from work, waiting at the door, ready to lead us to the bed where it was an absolute must that we had to lie down so you could nose nudge us and offer a kiss or two, all the while turning the purr machine on maximum power. We will still be expecting you to "help" us as we work on our laptops, halting our job only when we hear the sound of one of your home's many conveniently placed treat containers hitting the floor during one of your frequent gravity tests. We'd have to pick it up immediately of course and - while it was already in hand - why not offer a couple morsels to our loyal helper, right? My, you had us so well trained. We will feel you at bedtime when you would lead us to the bedroom, jump up onto the bed to spend the night, and often paw at the blankets and sheets to crawl under like daddy. Most of all, we will yearn for those lazy afternoons when you would crawl onto us as we sat on the sofa or a chair, then just suddenly plop, trusting us to catch you because you knew we always would and that we'd be as still as we could so that you could sleep undisturbed. Stewart, you made us better than we are. The love we share for you will be forever with us.

(Click on thumbnail to enlarge photo)

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