Godspeed, sweet Wotsit

We had to say goodbye to our dear Wotsit yesterday, making the difficult decision to let her cross the Rainbow Bridge. It was a shock, because the mystery illness/internal problems appeared so suddenly. But with no other options, we had to let her go.
Years ago she had shown up, pregnant, with another feral cat we dubbed Gary, who seemed to be taking care of her. She had those three kittens in our yard, with one apparently lost to a hawk.
We took in her daughter, Marmi, and a friend adopted her son, Harry.
Unfortunately we were not able to trap Wotsit before she was pregnant again, but this time she did not stray. Gary had disappeared, and perhaps she thought it was best to stay put. 

With the help of Stray Cat  Blues, we trapped Wotsit and her kittens were quickly adopted out by the cat rescue.
We brought Wotsit back after her spay, setting up an outside shelter and figuring she would be our outside cat if she decided to stay.
She had other ideas. She would sit on a chair on our deck and cry and cry. So we decided to try to bring her inside. It took a few days, but she settled in. She was now an indoor-only cat. She never totally lost that "flight" instinct from her feral days, but she also would sit on our laps and loved to be petted. And she got along with our other cats so well.
It was very easy to love her.
I have a few other senior cats -- we guessed that Wotsit was probably around 10 years old by now -- with health problems that are being monitored, but Wotsit always was healthy. So losing her was very tough.

Here are a few photos of this wonderful kitty:

 Daughter Marmi and Wotsit under the Christmas tree.

 Taking it easy...

Sweet girl...

 Although Wotsit's actual daughter Marmi lives here, several years ago Wotsit become the adoptive mom to Shel, after Shel's mom Beatrice died of cancer. Shel generally was close by Wotsit, choosing to follow her around and snuggle with her. Wotsit was just fine with that. And they didn't care that Shel -- who turns 14 this summer -- actually is older than Wotsit.

In a pile of cats -- sleeping on Domino, with Shel next to her.

 Wotsit gets groomed by daughter Marmi, with adopted daughter Shel close by.

Sleeping with Marmi and Shel...

Chilling with Marmi and Domino.

At the hospital, before the heart-wrenching goodbye...

Goodbye, sweet Wotsit. We are so glad you decided we could be your family. We'll never forget you.