A Transitional Time

It's been a tough couple of months for me.  On December 12, 2012, I had to say goodbye to my best friend and the love of my life.  Dihedral and I had been together for nearly 15 years and she was the best companion I could have ever asked for.  She was there when I needed her during the toughest times, including when I suffered from serious health problems relating to Long Term Withdrawal Syndrome after discontinuing Paxil.  She was there when I spent lonely and isolated days here in the high desert, ever missing my home in San Diego of 21 years.  And in the end my heart broke harder than it ever did the morning I had to let her go.  She had lived with the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) for approximately 8 years and toward the end, the disease seemed to have caught up with her.  Companion Animal Clinic staff did their best to help us keep her well and in the end Dr. Megan helped me make the decision.  It didn't really make it easier since I still wonder if I could have done more.  But the next step would have been exploratory surgery to find out if she had internal bleeding and we agreed it wouldn't be fair to a 15-year-old kitty to put her through something like that.

Here are a few photos of my sweet Dihedral when she was still happy and healthy:

I found that my grief from the loss was quite overwhelming and worse than I could have ever imagined.  She was my best friend after all!  In order to try to cope, I continued to visit the kitties at the Joshua Tree no-kill shelter and it was just a matter of time that my heart knew what I had to do.  The thing is, my new kitty cat would select me!  Cosette came in as a stray and the staff estimates she is between 2-3 years old.  The day we met and I took her out of her cage, she immediately plopped herself on my lap.  I knew then that she had decided she wanted me as her Kitty Mom.  She has been with us now for nearly 2 weeks and has adjusted quite well.  I wonder where she came from since she was clearly well cared for.  I can only imagine that she somehow slipped away from her home and got lost.  I wonder if her prior family is looking for her?  I posted many photos of her on Facebook, but none of my local high desert friends recognized her as belonging to someone who lives in this area.  Here are a few photos of my new kitty cat, who I am calling Cozy as her nickname: