My cat Tephra was a force of nature. She destroyed everything in the house that she thought might be worth nibbling on. She made sure that 6am, breakfast time, was my wakeup time, every day, even though I only actually had to wake up that early Monday through Friday. I loved her strong willpower, it reminded me of the punk rock side of myself.
Within weeks of moving into the apartment that my husband Bryan and I shared in 2012, this little chaos gremlin showed us another side. She was full of unconditional love towards the humans who cared for her, and whom respected her boundaries. She was the most fiercely affectionate cat I had ever shared a home with.
During the height of the COVID lockdown in 2020, I began to work from home. This is when she became not just the center of my domestic life, but the best coworker I could hope for. I put a cat bed in front of my computer’s screen, and she became my constant companion. She became my shadow. To keep her from becoming as bored as I was behind a desk at home, I began taking her outside on leashed walks, which she absolutely loved. She was the queen of the apartment complex’s gardens.
In late June 2024, I noticed a hard, non-moving lump on her jaw. The vet visits, and hard decisions that followed her cancer diagnosis made for some of the worst weeks of my life. Trying to get a creature that can’t speak, but whom had always had enough willpower to power a small city, to tell me when she was sick of fighting the tumor’s growth was both impossible, and completely necessary.
Tephra finally clearly expressed to me that she was in pain in late August. Knowing that Dr. Sandra was available to stop the pain, without having to take Tephra on a stressful car ride to the vet, made the last part of her journey with me easier.
Dr. Sandra reassured me that my decision was the right one, and was genuinely interested in what made my companion special in life. I am writing this post because I wanted her and her company to know how beautiful this being was before the disease had taken her looks and her energy away.
I am grateful that Dr. Sandra was able to fully release my beloved Tephra from the painful condition that had finally weakened the blaze of willpower that normally burned inside her tiny, furry body. Dr. Sandra let me shape the visit to fit my preferences. I was glad to be able to process this last, powerful moment with my constant companion in my own way.
