Miss Mary's malady.

My best friend, who also happens to be my housemate, is the parent of a beautiful cat named Miss Mary. Not JUST "Mary", mind you: Miss Mary. She is the queen of cats, and will not respond to anything less than the appropriate nomenclature.

This sweet and kind little beast was just recently diagnosed with feline kidney disease. Ugh. It's progressive and terminal, and though the vet caught it in its earliest stages, it will eventually take her life. Double ugh.

I didn't think I could love another cat as much as I love my own, but ... I was wrong. To absorb this information and see her in the throes of not eating, not drinking, enduring the indignity of at home subcutaneous re-hydration, totally off of her game, well it was nothing short of heartbreaking. I honestly didn't know I cared as much as I do.

There is a "Miss Mary"-shaped place in my heart.