Hayley and Kate Minter

Our sweet kitty of two-and-a-half years passed away yesterday.  Rod had a sudden onset of kidney failure and by the time we found out what was wrong, it was too late to save him.

Hayley has been most affected by this loss because it is her first real brush with death (that she can remember).  The death of a beloved pet is hard on anyone, but it is especially difficult for a child who cannot understand why it has happened, why she just can’t have her kitty back.  Hayley cried off and on all day in school, and she wrote this on the back of one of her coloring papers (this is verbatim, and spelled the way she wrote it):

“We loved Rod.  We liked Rod.  We cerd for Rod.  We fed Rod.  We peted Rod.  We loved Rod so muh.”

Poor Hayley.