![\"Beautiful](\"http:\/\/www.catdoodles.com\/dailydoodle\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/charlotte-rip-640.jpg\")
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Below is\u00a0the tribute I posted for\u00a0Charlotte on Facebook, exactly one year ago, when our dear girl passed. At the time, I couldn\u2019t bring myself to announce her death on this blog. But I\u2019m quite sure she\u2019d want her story told on here eventually as well, and I\u2019m finally feeling ready to.<\/p>\n
As I promised she would be back then, Charlotte\u00a0is still \u201calways in my heart and forever on my drawing table,\u201d still showing\u00a0up in\u00a0my doodles for Dad here and there, sometimes with my departed mom, sometimes with Blackie<\/a>, enjoying life on the other side, and occasionally butting her pink nose into domestic affairs back here as well.\u00a0(I\u2019ll post some of these one day, maybe even soon.)<\/p>\n In the days leading up to her passing last year, she spent countless hours parked on my drawing table, while I doodled New Years cards \u2014 I think about 80 in all \u2014 for friends and family, all featuring Her Eternal Loveliness\u00a0in frolicsome poses. (I\u2019ll post more of these one day, too, though a few can meanwhile be seen over on Instagram<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Back then, I never imagined we would ever replace Charlotte,\u00a0of course, and we haven\u2019t. \u2014Though a sweet little gray and white cat, Chloe, unexpectedly joined our family this past November, and has been carving out a new place for herself in our lives and our hearts \u2014 and occasionally in my cat doodles, too (though she\u2019s still a bit shy, and reluctant to assume a speaking role).\u00a0I had spied Chloe\u00a0(then being called Stormy, in reference to the storm drain where she\u2019d been spotted) at our vet\u2019s office, when taking our boy Max (who\u2019s alive and well and says hello!) in for some routine care. A client had brought her in, and our vet\u00a0& staff\u00a0was kindly providing her with love & care & room & board until she could be restored to good health and adopted out.<\/p>\n As well tended as she was, I could tell she was sad, and offered to foster her here at our home, to help speed her healing. And the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n Interestingly, after \u201cthe new girl\u201d had\u00a0been renamed Chloe by us, in response to a request she herself made on her first day here, via our go-to animal communicator, Kate Solisti<\/a>, I remembered that back here in Doodleland, Charlotte had had a cousin named Chloe<\/a> as well. So, perhaps this was all meant to be\u2026or was Charlotte Approved, at any rate?<\/p>\n Without further digression\u2026<\/p>\n In Memory of Charlotte 1999? – January 2016<\/p>\n In the end, the end came fairly suddenly, just 2 days after I first noticed changes in her eating and breathing patterns. But fortunately there was still ample time to do the important things: set up a same day appointment with her friends over at Barrington Animal Hospital and afterwards with Kate Solisti, our go-to & godsent animal communicator, to explain to Charlotte (and to us) what was going on, discuss options and timing. We also were able to set up an appointment with Dr. Michelle of Lap of Love, for in-home euthanasia the next morning (which was yesterday, and Charlotte\u2019s own preference, versus leaving us any sooner).<\/p>\n Charlotte told us (through Kate) that she \u201cwas not afraid of going to the other side,\u201d as she \u201chad been there before,\u201d and knew \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of love waiting for me there.\u201d She considered herself \u201ca very lucky cat,\u201d had enjoyed being here and having a body, but \u201cknew bodies just wear out.\u201d She said she loved us very much, and was very grateful for our love. She thanked us \u201cfor our patience about the food\u201d \u2014 a reference to the 101 different brands and flavors that were opened and discarded partially eaten over the past year, in hopes of finding healthy choices she would like. She said she would come around to visit us after she left, \u201cas Blackie has done.\u201d \u2014 Which was news to me, though my beloved cat Blackie, who left us 2 years ago this very week, is often in mind. Charlotte also pledged she\u2019d be with me whenever I made my cat doodles, as she always has been when she was here (whether just inside my head, or right next to or on top of the paper I was drawing on).<\/p>\n It was such a peaceful & gentle way to go in the end, which takes an enormous edge off the grieving process. We all miss her terribly already, of course \u2014 even our cat Max, whom Charlotte never really warmed up to (to state it mildly). But it was an exit exactly like Her Majesty wanted. She left on her own terms, knowing she was supported, utterly cherished and adored, both by those she left behind, and those waiting for her in the Light \u2014 which I suspect includes both my mom & Blackie, among others. Short of wishing our sweet animal companions could live with us in perfect health forever, what more could anyone wish for, really?<\/p>\n Rest in peace, dearest Charlotte: Always in my heart and forever on my drawing table. Thank you again, Kate, for being with us on every step of Charlotte’s journey these last several years. And thank you, friends, for all your kind interest in our girl (and my doodles of her). Much appreciated, by her and me both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Below is\u00a0the tribute I posted for\u00a0Charlotte on Facebook, exactly one year ago, when our dear girl passed. At the time, I couldn\u2019t bring myself to announce her death on this blog. But I\u2019m quite sure she\u2019d want her story told … Continue reading ![\"Charlotte](\"http:\/\/www.catdoodles.com\/dailydoodle\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/c-jean-tuttle-ny-dancers-640.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Sweet](\"http:\/\/www.catdoodles.com\/dailydoodle\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/sweet-chloe-640.jpg\")
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