Just got a call from the girl that our queen cat Cheddars is at the emergency vet with what looks like catastrophic kidney failure and no good prognosis. I'm a very long drive away and she probably won't be with us by the time I get home.

I have a flight home Friday, trying to decide if I could / should rent a car or find a bus to get home asap if only so my wife doesn't have to deal with the aftermath alone

Cheddars is gone. I'm on my way to the airport to catch a bus. Trying not to be a mess on public transit

This is my last photo of Cheddars, she's the one on the right

Blessed is the silent high speed cab driver when I can't abide walking in the dark to a bus stop for a 45 minute ride with bags from a trip

Part of me feels melodramatic for having dropped everything at a work trip to panic-pack and literally sprint to catch the next bus home just because we lost a pet.

But along with being the queen of the house, Cheddars was basically my wife's familiar. She's got a big floral tattoo with Cheddars' face on her arm.

I lost my own first real familiar Puck, a little over 10 years ago. The loss is stupifying. I didn't want to leave her alone with that feeling for another 2 nights.

I'll unload in a blog post at some point, but:

We had Cheddars for 15 years. She was there when we bought our first house. She kept Puck warm when he got sick. And then she was there for the next 5 houses and a cross-country move because we couldn't stay put.

She was my wife's co-worker at home. She slept in my lap after dinner and went off to bed with my wife every night. She kept Catsby and Cosmo in line. Hell, she kept me in line on occasion. She was a very good cat.

Oh and weird Cheddars trivia: She was Catsby's mom. We got him a couple years after we got her, when we realized he was up for adoption. We figured she probably made good kittens (she did)