We were noticing that Gremlin was getting dangerously skinny and unnaturally lethargic, so a week and a half ago (last Tuesday) we took her to the vet's to get her checked out. They took some blood for a test because her symptoms could be a few different things, none of them good.

They called back the next day and said that her kidneys were failing and it was only a matter of time until she died. By the time symptoms show up it's already too late to really do anything. You can try to treat it, the vet said, but that requires a few days of hospitalization and daily injection of fluids to keep her hydrated. He said that even with treatment, he'd never seen a cat last more than a year.

Gremlin didn't look like she was in pain, so we didn't want to put her down right away. We just fed her a high-calorie food with a syringe twice a day (she wouldn't eat on her own). And we waited for it to get bad enough to put her down.

Luckily, it never got that bad, and Gremlin died peacefully (we hope and assume) on Wednesday. We buried her next to Tex.

The whole experience was about as horrible as you can imagine. I always figured that Tiger would die first (from a heart attack, or something) and Gremlin would live with me until we both were old and gray. So now it's up to Tiger to keep me company for the next 60 years, and for some reason I don't think that's going to happen. So the whole "Gremlin is on her deathbed" announcement was a bit of a shocker, but at least I had a week to say goodbye.

This may sound strange and a bit pathetic, but if there's one thing I've learned from this, it's how grateful I am for the gospel. Not knowing if Gremlin will be with me in the afterlife is really terrifying. And she's just a cat. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be not knowing if my own family will be together forever. But I know that families can be together forever, and that our family will be together forever. I'm grateful for parents who married in the temple and will allow us to be an eternal family, and I'm gratful for the example of my brother and sisters who have married in the temple and are starting their eternal families.

I love you guys!