Sleeping Without My Girls

Lola and Camille

Both of my girls are gone. Lola left a few months before my precious Camille. I had just gotten used to not having Lola sleeping by my feet and pushing my legs off the edge of the bed until I yelled at her to get out of the bed. She would begrudgingly comply, then climb back into her spot when she knew I had fell back to sleep.

Me and Lola

Now I have to get used to not having Camille sleeping next to my head at night, sometimes waking me up with her loud purr which showed just how happy and content she was with her life. She had been sick for a while, but she always seemed to climb into her spot to keep me company until I fell asleep. Whenever I would wake up to find her gone, I could look into the closet next to my side of the bed and see her asleep in there, the pile of clothes were a lot more comfortable for her than my tossing and turning and flailing elbows. In the past fifteen years, you could count the number of nights that we didn’t sleep together under the same roof on your fingers and have some leftovers.

Before I took her to the clinic for the final time, I wanted to take some pictures of Camille. I took a couple of her looking out of a window, because although she had only been outside a few times in her life, she liked looking at it. When I took this last picture of me petting her, she started to purr and I started to cry. I am going to miss her more than I can possibly say.

My Camille