Folding Inwards

Grateful for Patience after Losing Ande

For the first time in eighteen years, I am animal-less. I don’t have a furry, feathery, scaley, or otherwise non-human sentient being living with me.

Yesterday we said goodbye to Ande. She fell asleep on the grass as I held her head with one hand and pet her with the other and said sweet nothings to her.

The Sweet Nothings

I started a thread on Substack Notes just before she suddenly got sick and kept it going day by day. (Best guess is she had a stroke Saturday night.)

Here’s a link to that thread.

I read everyone’s responses to it and I will respond to them when I am able. Please know, I am very grateful to everyone who “liked” or commented on the thread. I am not able to respond right now. I am going to turn inwards, fold myself inwards to reflect on what she meant to me and to reflect especially on those last six days. Then I will decide what to share publicly and what to keep private.

Ande enjoying her yard, sniffing the sniffs, watching the passersby, laying in front of the cedar tree, the last on which Hector peed and in which his collar now hangs.