Learn more about the inspiration for this collection
People talk about having a “heart dog”. A “heart dog” has been described as many things by many different people: a once-in-a-lifetime dog, a soulmate, a game-changer, and life-shaper. It’s much less common to hear about someone’s “heart cat”. Perhaps that’s because of the age-old saying that dogs are man’s best friend.
Yet those of us who have been chosen by cats can attest to the fact that there is more to the creature than its aloof reputation might suggest. Cats, like dogs, can also form secure attachments to their caregivers that transcend even death.
Some cats, special cats, can even knead their way into your hearts and in so doing, carve out a space that only they can occupy. It is a privilege that a select few humans come to know and depend upon. It is an honor that my very own Bailey bestowed upon me.
I had grown up with cats underfoot. Before Bailey, there was Tiger and Pudding. Yet, as much as I loved my childhood cats and as much as I will forever be in their debt for inspiring my passion for veterinary medicine, their respective connections to me were different from mine and Bailey’s. From the moment I first laid my eyes on Bailey, before hers had even opened, something changed within me. It was as if from that moment forward, our lives were intricately, intimately woven together in a way that only we could ever understand. She was truly mine. Not mine in the sense of ownership but rather, mine to look after, nourish, cherish, love, and protect. She was mine to be forever responsible for in a way that I had never known before. As I held Bailey in the palm of my hand, I felt complete. As though this little being who had only just met me would know me better than I knew myself in the days to come. There was a certain peace and comfort in knowing that. A certain sense of letting go of the walls that I had figuratively constructed and letting her in.
It’s indescribable and unrelatable unless you yourself have experienced it, the pureness of a bond that has no reason for being. It just is. And, in that precarious state of existence somewhere between life and death, you for the first time ever truly find yourself. You learn to see yourself through another’s lens and you recognize that the person you are, with them, is who you forever want to be.
Bailey’s story is documented within Chapter 7 of my textbook, Supporting Pet Owners through Grief: A Veterinarian’s Guide to Loss. You’ll come to see her through my own eyes and journal entries, and although Bailey departed this world on October 17, 2022, what I hope you’ll take away from the story of our journey together is that I never forgot her love or the innumerable ways she changed my life for the better.
This collection of cards was born out of my love for her and her “sibling”, Nina, as an earthly recognition that those we love intensely and lose, through death or other forms of loss, leave lasting impressions.
If this collection is to honor what our loved ones taught us in death as well as in life, then it is only fitting that its cards feature their “essence.”