A True Garden Companion

 Rob Chambon of Bicknell, Indiana, USA, recently posted this lovely essay about his late cat to his Facebook page and agreed to share it here as well.

Rob wrote: "Cabbie Girl, my faithful and loving companion, is gone. She has left me today to pass into another realm where, in the words of a beloved friend, she is now running freely amidst butterflies and fields of beautiful wildflowers, forever without end. She came to me in the fall of 2007, abandoned by her previous owners. I don't know if I found her, or she found me, but either way, she touched me deeply. Cabbie filled a void in my life for all those glorious years she stayed here with me, often times running out to greet my car as it turned into the driveway. I could always count on her being near at all times, sleeping as she usually did, on my deck beneath the lights of my tree.

"Countless times over the years, Cabbie would follow me into my woodland garden, waiting patiently for me, while I toiled away at building another section or adding more plants. She was there almost from the very beginning, seeing for herself how the garden was expanding, and often times giving her a new place to roam. I'd turn and see here there, lying on a rotting log, or resting on a cut up tree stump watching me and waiting to once again follow me out of the woods when I was through. I shall miss those moments forever.

"It's truly amazing how much we can be so touched by loving animals like this. They give us unconditional love and fill voids in our lives like nothing else can. Cabbie, I am so very blessed with your presence these past nine years, but it was time to let you go, dear girl. And so, with that said, I finish this message, with tears in my eyes, saying goodbye one last time to the finest pet a guy like me could ever have. Goodbye dear girl, my beloved Cabbie. I love you so much and miss you terribly. You are free now."