Goodbye Little Ultraviolet

Our beautiful black kitty Ultraviolet (Little Girl)

We have lost our beautiful black kitty Ultraviolet, also known as Little Girl. I called her Sweetheart, most of the time. We’re heartbroken.

I knew she wasn’t young. Even so, I thought we’d have her longer. Two vets estimated her age to be about 10 last year in August, when we took her in off the streets. So this year I thought she was 11. Many of our cats lived to 16 or 17, and one even lived to 19 and a half. She could be older than 11, my husband said. Still, I felt hopeful because she had a hearty appetite and she was affectionate and cheerful. Her vet check up last year had been good. So was her recent checkup a few weeks ago.

Suddenly without warning she had a severe episode like a seizure, a stroke, a heart attack, or all three. Afterwards she was unresponsive for a time. She miraculously revived and chirruped and purred, coming to us to be snuggled. We hoped this meant she could recover; we made plans to have her tested for various ailments, but then during a sleep that seemed normal, she slipped away.

I don’t think we’ve ever had a sweeter kitty. All day and all evening she would go from one of us to the other, making little “urrrp oop eep” sounds of greeting. “Come up Sweetheart,” I’d answer. She’d jump up, sometimes with a little help from us, and settle in for pets and purrs. I miss her soft chirrups. And, of course, her editing.

Ultraviolet with a knowing look, helping me edit

As sad as we are, I would take an older cat again. I’m happy we could give her snuggles, her favorite tasty foods, toys, comfy blankies, and a safe home in her last year. I just wish we could have had more time with her.

She was so loving and had such cuteness and whimsey about her.

For the last few months I’ve been trying to get the first volume of my book ready for publication. I’m getting closer, but am not there yet. It’s taking a long time, partly because I haven’t been too well myself. I have a very limited time span each day when I’m capable of stringing a sentence together.

So I haven’t had much energy left over to go out and about and comment on the sites of others. I’m so sorry and hope to do better in the future! I do read and enjoy everyone’s websites, and I mean it when I ‘like’. I think of it as leaving a pictorial calling card; I sort of like that idea. But my plans are still to comment more in the future. I also meant to start doing book reviews and I’ve had to delay that too. There is so much more to the book publishing process than I had anticipated!

Once I actually have the book out I think it’ll be fun. But I always thought Ultraviolet would be here with us for that festive time.