http://www.home.earthlink.net/~jemdoll/muskham1.JPG
To my darling little wisp of a girl, Muskrat:
I hope you have now regained your health and strength, having found your big brother Meeshe at Rainbow Bridge, and that he is looking out for you like he did here on earth.
I learned so much from you, my little Reese's Peanut Butter cupcake, and I know that during our few years together you learned to trust people, even if that trust did not extend beyond me and your Daddy. Quite an accomplishment, for you and us.
Whatever awful experience you had before we found you that broke your little leg took a long time to overcome, as did the physical healing process. After suffering through an abcess, bone infection and many antibiotics (all the while being FeLV+) you finally won that fight and were able to keep your hind leg, and even though it never healed properly and was permanently bowed which caused you to hobble a bit, it was not painful. You hippity-hopped around and looked so cute chasing snake charmer when we would play. It was not a disability to you at all! You were just glad to be alive. I admired your strength and persistance at getting better way back then, AND I admired your refusal to allow me to touch you as you were recuperating in your cage. But I hung in there, spending many hours reading nursery rhymes and singing to you, until you finally allowed my touch. At first, it was only with a brush, but then you welcomed my hand. Our relationship continued to blossom over the years, and eventually you were my lap kitty, welcoming petting, brushing and playtime with purrs and head bumps; every so often you would elicit a scrappy hiss when you felt like you needed to revert to your feral upbringing.
I hope you had a fulfilling life here with us, my prettiest of pretty girls. I trust that I made the proper, timely decision and did the right thing by you, Muskrat, and that you were ready to depart. You continued to impress me even in your last days . . . still the courageous and valiant fighter, but like your brave FeLV+ brother before you, some fights just can't be won and I'm so terribly sorry.
We love and miss you, Muskrat. The hammock photo is old, but I have the most recent photo I took of her still in my camera and when I finish the roll and get it developed I will add it to her tribute if it is of decent quality.
