Thread by @joyce_volkmann

This is a very sad #Caturday for our family. Our furbaby, Buddy is crossing the Rainbow Bridge. Buddy was a very chill cat. She got along with everyone.
We adopted her when she was 6 months old from a shelter. We had moved into a new (for us) house from an apartment and wanted...

...two kittens. So they took us to the "kitten room" while explaining that adoption was an involved process and might take several days.
It was January and the youngest available was about 3 momths old. The room was kitty paradise, bright with windows with cat sills and young...

...cats and older kittens were playing with toys and climbing cat trees. We almost felt guilty. We only had a scratching post at home, leftover from the Tonk I had rescued who had passed the year before.
My daughter was only just 3, & my son 8, so the volunteer was eyeing them...

...a bit skeptically. Meanwhile a sandy tabby kitten leaped onto my shoulder, holding on for dear life. The volunteer freaked out a bit, apologizing profusely, concerned about scratches. "It's just a cat scratch," I laughed. "I guess we have been chosen. Now to find another...

...one she likes."
That was much harder. It took 45 minutes, in a roomful of cats, to find one that she even tolerated. That is how we got Buddy, a 6 month-old long, gray tabby. (By the way, we went home that day with both kittens.) The kids named them Buddy and Diamonds, names..

...I would only later realize were very appropriate because Buddy was everyone's friend and Diamonds was a hard-as-nails, loving byotch.
We moved into a larger home near a creek. The cats would team hunt. Diamonds would flush out prey and Buddy, very cheetah-like in her length,..

...speed and agility would jump high in the air or bound across the yard. They were often successful.
One memorable evening, it was our first dinner party. Buddy, always social, didn't want to come empty-handed and showed up with a snake in her mouth. Her contribution to dinner..

...Buddy loved chicken, could be a real pest about it. But what she REALLY adored was ice cream. That cat would come from nowhere when ice cream was involved. No telling how many times we had to "rescue" her because she was walking around blindly with a Ben & Jerry's container...

...stuck on her head.
We always said that this was Buddy's first incarnation as a cat, that she was still a dog at heart. She was a talker. And she would meet our cars and greet us everyday. And, unlike most cats, she also didn't mind riding in cars. My husband and I shared...

...custody of her the last couple of years and she was just as comfortable as could be riding back and forth the 150 mi RT and hanging out with the cats in my neighborhood as she was making the move with them there. Her peeps were what were important to her. And we loved her...

Goodbye, Buddy, of the crooked tail. We will never know how you got that crooked tail. But we hope you felt the love we all felt for you.
See you On The Other Side. 💔💔💔

(Pic of other 2 cats is Diamonds, on the chair, & our most recent rescue, Mojo, "helping" with the puzzle).

@threadreaderapp please unroll

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and words.
Pets are invaluable. Buddy was irreplaceable but will always be in our hearts.