Things that made me cry...

Via fw is Scott Adams' touching story about the loss of his cat.

I read this this morning. Then I cried. Then I went downstairs to the living room, where Nibbler was lounging in the path of a sunbeam in the living room, and petted her for about a minute or so, until she got bored and left.

Nibbler is only about a year and a half old, so I still hopefully have a long time of having her furry little butt around. But as a pet owner, stories like this are a reminder that our pets won't be around forever - and that at some point we may have to make the Sophie's choice kind of decision between ending our pet's lives and watching them suffer. '

Like Scott Adams, I kind of feel like Nibbler picked me - not because I picked her out of a litter of kittens, but because I was reluctant to become a cat owner until I met her, and she fell asleep on my lap - and after I picked her up and put her down, crawled back and fell asleep several more times.

Like a lot of cats, Nibbler can be affectionate when she wants to be and act like she doesn't give a shit about you the rest of the time. She's destroyed a large portion of my living room, put holes in a number of pieces of my clothing, made many of my meals a race to eat before she grabs all the food off my plate, and scratched and bit me a ton of times. But when she curls up in my lap while I'm reading or watching TV, or when I wake up in the morning to find her asleep in my bed, it's hard to be mad at her.

I sometimes wonder what I would be like without the little furball. I mean, I'm already kind of lonely - I would be even worse without her. I suppose that puts me on the level of crazy cat ladies, but whatever.

Scott's story is a reminder for us to appreciate and spend time with our four-pawed friends.