I came home from work yesterday to find my cat, my beloved Nikki kitty of 17 years, had passed away.  What hurts the most is that I wasn’t there to be with her. She was alone. I know her last thoughts were of me because I found her in our spare room in the basement on top of my old bed where she and I slept many nights together over the years when I was single. She was MY cat. My Nikki Kitty. Dave called me at work yesterday to say that when he checked on her yesterday morning she wasn’t doing well and that her breathing was very labored. She had been eating less and less over the past couple weeks. These last couple days she barely got up from her "spot" on Gavin’s mini-recliner in the basement. But in her final moments, she managed to get up and jump up onto my old bed. That tells me she wanted to be close to me. I know my scent had to still be on that bed. I just wish I was there to comfort her, to tell her that she’s been such a wonderful companion over the last 17 years. I have so so so many memories with her. It’s going to be hard to let go, she was my baby. Oh, Nikki, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there. I will miss you so so much.

Nikki at about 5 weeks old, taken back in May of 1989 when I was living with my mother. I was just 19 years old myself.

Here she is Dec. 1989 at about 9 months, we were living at my grandmothers.

This was taken summer of 1995 after she and I moved into our first apartment together. I was in my mid-twenties, boy the stories she could tell.

And here she is with my husbands cat, Boots in 2002. We had just moved in a month earlier and she and Boots were still getting acquainted, this was the first time they sat peacefully together.

Here she is last summer, she loved laying in the sun on the landing at the backdoor

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