Week Twenty-Three: Cat at the Window

As soon as I saw this darling "Cat at the Window" pattern, I knew I had to stitch it in memory of our dear all-black kitty, Shadow. This was a simple and quick stitch using white monaco fabric and DMC threads using a free pattern from Kreuzstich-kreativ which can be found right here.

It was two years ago this week that our dear cat of fourteen years passed away. Taking him to the vet that warm June evening in 2007 was probably one of the hardest things we ever had to do as a family. But his intestinal tumor had returned a year after an operation to remove it... and there was nothing left to be done for him. He was just the best kitty ever--a stray who wandered into our yard in 1993 and made his home with us for the next fourteen years. Shadow was a cat who thought he was a dog--very sociable and loving. He grew up with my sons, watching three little boys become young men. He loved rubber bands and chasing moths, laying his head against his "girlfriend" (my husband's leather briefcase), pouncing on newspapers and exploring paper bags, having his head rubbed with a shoehorn, "talking" to the birds outside the window, rolling in catnip and lolling in the sun, sitting on a kitchen stool next to us while we ate our meals, and sleeping in our laps. Shadow...we miss you daily and we will never forget you.

Shadow on the windowseat in our family room...

and waiting patiently by the door...