It’s been the three of us since 2001. I adopted Maya from the Forrest Hill vet clinic where I worked after deciding not to continue at Bryn Mawr. She’s maya koshka. Working two full-time jobs, I left home for up to 18 hours some days. Her response to that is explosive diarrhea. So I went to the Humane Society in midtown Memphis and adopted a 6-month old kitten to keep my cat company.

Sitting in the room of adoptable cats and kittens, I cast about for the right choice. Softly clucking and petting every furry thing in front of me, one particular kitten kept following me about the room mewing. When I’d sit down with a prospective cat she literally pushed into my lap every time. Bryn clearly chose me as her person and was not having it any other way. I relented quickly, of course.

Arriving home with a second cat, Maya walks straight up to us and let’s out an open-mouth hiss. Bryn pulls back with wide eyes, equally startled and confused by this greeting. She carefully noses forward as Maya crouches low, flattening her ears. Curious, Bryn puts her paw out to poke the beast. A rumbling growl and Maya pounces. One short tussle before they tear across the room, Bryn chasing Maya. 5 minutes later they are aggressively grooming each other. Sisters ever since.

Bryn has always loved affection, giving and receiving.  She sleeps next to my pillow or under the covers and can wake me up just by staring intently at my face.  She will follow you into the bathroom if you don’t close the door completely because she likes a captive audience.  When living with dogs she never took their shit and even taught Ziva how to wrestle.

Bryn kitty is in end stage renal failure.  There’s not much to do but make her comfortable.  Eventually the stuff her kidneys aren’t filtering will make her too sick to eat.  That’s when it’s time.  I don’t know when that will be.