One year on

It's one year on since Houston passed away. I can hardly believe what an effect his presence must have had on my and my wife's lives. We still miss him, when we encounter a situation or object he would have liked or disliked we always ask each other, "you know who would have liked this?." Yesterday we sat down and looked over the photos I had of him which I've saved to my media player and laughed about the funny situations with him and the odd things he did.

I've never actually had a pet of my own. My family had a cat when I was growing up, who lived to be about 18 years old herself. I fortunately got to say goodbye to her about two weeks before she decided for herself she'd had enough.

I cared for Houston every day, fed him, watered him, watched his health, cleaned his litter tray. We hung out together almost every day and night while my wife worked nights and slept days, he curled up beside me in bed whenever I slept, we batted golf balls back and forth to each other and he cried for me whenever I went out the front door and he wanted to see what I was doing. So, yes, I was attached to him and it was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do to ask the vet to end his life. But I did that for him, too, and I was there with him to the very end.

I won't forget him.