My heart has been ripped out this week. Princess Granola is missing.

KB’s *ONE* wish for her 5th birthday was a kitten of her very own. She pondered for weeks over what kind….one week, it was a gray striped one, the next week, an orange one…. finally, she settled on a black and white one, and it had to be a girl cat.

Completely against my better judgement…..I decided to go along, and get her her own cat….not being a cat person myself….. Oh, the sacrifices you’ll make for the ones you love!!

It was completely meant to be. I made a trip to the Animal Shelter, who surprisingly had no kittens at all…. but Petsmart did. And lo and behold, one of them was a tiny little black and white cat!! So I dropped $95 (yes ~ that’s right ~ I said NINETY FIVE) on this precious little stray who was falling all over herself to get my attention in Petsmart. We presented her to KB right after her birthday meal at Chuck-E-Cheese, and KB was smitten from the get-go. She named her Princess Granola, because, in her words, “That’s the most beautiful name I can think of.”

Princess became quite a nuisance pretty quickly. Around here, cats live OUTSIDE….absolutely NEVER in the house…..but every time we’d open the door, Princess would run in, and inevitably, make a bee-line for the kitchen counter. Every time!!! Then there were the hairballs on the deck, right outside the back door where SOMEONE was inevitably going to step in it. And the pawprints on my car. And the wrapping herself around my ankles every time I stepped outside. Like I said, I’m not a cat person.

BUT ~ you know how you start to grow an attachment to something/someone JUST BECAUSE somebody you love, loves it? For me that would be the Arkansas Razorbacks and Princess the Cat. But for the people I love, I would care nothing for either of those things! I didn’t realize how much I “loved” Princess until she was missing.

We had that difficult conversation with KB, then proceeded to make the rounds to the Animal Shelters…….and no Princess. I’ve called Animal Control every day this week, AND the shelters, just in case …. and still, no Princess. We left the Animal Shelter empty handed. In the back seat, KB was quiet for a few blocks. I turned around to look at KB, and she had the faintest little beginnings of not-yet-cried tear drops forming in her eyes. And THAT ripped my heart right out. I never thought I’d grieve so much over a cat.