This post has been a month in the making.
Because honestly? Every single time I thought about writing it, I'd tear up and that would be the end of that.
I still am, actually.
This is Yugi's memorial post. Because even though she was only with us for about two months shy of five years, she was, still is, and always will be, a very important part of our family.
We first got Yugi (along with her brother, Yami), back in October of 2005 [Picture entry here; she's the tabby.]. She was the adventurous one, Yami liked to hide in the bathroom and cry for her until she came back. As we adopted more kitties (Aya and Simba), she became more of the mommy kitty, especially to Simba, who loved to rough house with her and then go to her later for cleanings.
She loved her treats (especially her Temptations), loved to watch people fill things at the water dispenser, loved the dishrag and had a strange fixation with ice cubes. She loved to play fetch with those little furry mice and she would almost always bring it back to you and drop it at your feet. She loved to talk and one could hold entire conversations with her and she would answer every. single. time. She loved to lay on her back, to the point where'd we joke about her 'playing dead'.
When I had my surgery, she was the kitty that wouldn't leave my side, first when I was left on the couch upstairs after I got home, and later, when I slept on the futon in my living room in the basement, because I couldn't climb up into my own bed without pain. She had this way of waking you up if she thought she was being ignored and dammit, you needed to pay attention to her now, but climbing on top of you and laying right on your chest. If that didn't work, she'd start poking and pawing at your nose and mouth until she got her attention, bitch.
She had a tendency to give you the snootiest look ever if she thought you were being stupid (she even gave me the look the last time I saw her, as Ri and I were leaving the vet hospital). She was the first female cat I ever owned. In keeping with family tradition, she had about 20 nicknames: Yug, Yugi-girl, Little Sister (before Ashley died)....
Mom even gave her her own dorky song based on the Scooby-Doo Theme:
Yugi, Yugi, Yu~
Where are you~?
We have some treats for you now~
She is, and always will be, special to me and I will never forget her. And I firmly believe she's currently hanging out with Ashley, waiting for the rest of us to get there so that we can give her treats, dammit.
[Kitty photo gallery here. Large tabby is Yugi, the black one is Yami, the smaller tabby is Aya and the white/orange one is Simba.]