Saying Goodbyes

Tonight's
offering is a puzzle, kind of different, not a print but a painting !

I haven't really written here in the last 2 weeks.

Our Dad died suddenly on July 12th and my heart is just so broken that I
really don't feel like doing anything. I haven't even been painting, which
is unbelievable for me, something that happens so quickly like this has just
drained me. This is my husbands Dad, but the 4 of us, Mom , Dad, Willy and I ,
have been together for so long that we forget who belongs to who. I love
his parents as much as if they were my own. We have shared a beautiful
little duplex for the last 22 years . Now all has changed !

Last Sunday we scattered Dads' ashes over the Gulf of Mexico in the most
beautiful service I have ever seen. 10 of us left the dock in 2 boats ,
just family members, It was a beautiful morning and the gulf was like a
mirror. As we proceeded on our trip all of a sudden we spotted dolphins
feeding and playing and once they knew they had an audience they really put on a
show. When we got to a quiet little place between 2 islands we set the ashes
which were in a floating container that looked like a woman's brimmed hat . We
all traced our hands on and wrote our hearts. Then flowers were thrown
into the water and a gentle rain started to fall, you could hardly feel it.
It was like tears from the angels. Then the ashes sunk and the rain
stopped, it was very surreal almost like being in a quiet church , very
peaceful. My son in law, one of the boat Captains made a cross
over with the boat and we began our journey home. The world is a lesser
place without this wonderful man, he will be missed by many.

This will be very hard on us all. Mom has been married to Dad for 52 years .
Little Katie has taken this very hard she has lost old Grandpa as she always
called him. We took her out and showed her the brightest star in the sky
and told her that was old Grandpa twinkling down on her, now every night she
goes out ,looks up and yells I" love you super much old Grandpa", not a dry eye
in the house ! Very hard to explain all this to a 3 1/2 year old little
kid. Very hard !

Now we will start to try and get over our loss and create a new normal.

Sad for now

meows and purrs,

Katie

SUMMER SUNFLOWERS

Mr. Bear is my big beautiful black cat who I paint often.
He has diabetes and takes 2 shots of insulin daily which has been working
great. BUT, it's a nasty disease and is starting to take it's toll. Mr.
Bears kidneys are starting to fail and at 16 years old time is running out

When I first got Mr. Bear, he weighed about 5 ounces. We got
him and his brother Andouille, a spicy little orange tabby who died suddenly at
the age of 5, at the local animal shelter.  The lady told me they would be
euthanized because they were to little to be in the shelter, meow meow, just
call me their new Mama.  Home we went with the new little flea bags, there
were more fleas than kittens. So home we went and de bugged our new babies. 
Next we started feeding them with little bottles  and special kitten milk
from the vet and they grew and grew.  It's amazing how a little food and a
lot of love make kittens grow.

Mr. Bear goes back for another check next Friday so I will
update his condition then.

Thank you for all the emails of encouragement and the prayers.

They help more than you can ever know.

Meows and purrs for tonight,

Katie