Number 9

In the last hours of summer, as the season was waning and getting ready for the equinox, Verse's ninth kitten, who shall go unnamed, but not unloved, passed away in the wee hours of the morning.  It did not live to see the falling of the leaves, or the way that the autumn sky lights up with the clouds in the evenings as the sun sets and turns everything to a bright brilliant red. It did not get to see the leaves change from green to yellow to orange as the season progresses, eventually turning brown and falling off.  It never opened its eyes to see Mr. A and DJ looking down at it, with love and devotion. 

 But it did know the feel of love.  It knew that love poured into his little body every time he snuggled up to his mother and put that nipple in his mouth, the warm milk giving it just enough to hold on until his little heart was too full of love and let go into the hereafter.  It was old enough to feel the warm bodies of his brothers and sisters as he looks his last breath, pressing up against him, letting him know that he too was part of something special and wonderful and so full of love and devotion, that there was nothing in the world better than being in this fur pile. He could smell the breath of his mother, pouring over him as she licked him and cared for him, nuzzling him with her face. He is to be envied, for he will never know a world with cold bitterness or hate. He will never know a world where there wasn't someone there to love him, to nuzzle him, to take care of every need, to make sure that he is comfortable.

 His spirit, his energy, will flow into his brothers and sisters who will feel his love for him always, even if they don't know what that love is, but they will know that there is something in their little kitten hearts that makes them stronger, that makes them take on the world as they grow, and separate.  He will be the thread that connects them through all of their lives, because he will be there to watch over all of them. And when their time comes, many years down the road, he will be waiting for them, still a kitten at the foot of that rainbow bridge asking what took them so long, and talking so fast about all of the great people and pets that he has to introduce them to as they cross over that bridge themselves. He will forever remain a kitten in the hearts of those who loved him.