July 10, 2007, We Lost Lucy, But She Brought Mimi

July 10, 2025 Bernadette

Lucy, Pink and Gray (on her favorite rag rug).

Your petite silhouette lingers

long, graceful legs tipped with soundless slender paws

the waving tendril of a tail that curls in a perfect circle

as you pause in your eternal dance

and enrich my life,

awaken nascent creative visions

and laughter at the silly joy of youth,

yellow eyes illumining my world

leaving rainbows in your wake;

the images you inspired in your brief existence

ease the sadness of your leaving,

as I remember and render your antics

I can share you with the world.

Remembering Lucy.

. . . . . . .

July 10 is the day we lost Lucy, but she brought us Mimi and the Four Siblings.

A day filled with such extreme sadness and joy, and forever change. We remember Lucy, and thank her for her gifts.

On that day, no coincidence but an intention, after I had returned from taking Lucy to be cremated, as I and Cookie and Kelly and Peaches and Namir gathered at the basement door to remember Lucy in one of her favorite spots, Lucy’s mother appeared, very pregnant, waddling off of the brick path to the water bowl she was accustomed to drinking from.

Lucy’s mother was, of course, Mimi. Mimi’s “owner” had several unaltered cats but I had convinced them to give me the kittens, and Lucy and her siblings had joined us the previous June. Lucy’s siblings were adopted but Lucy was not. She was a happy kitten in a house of seniors until the following spring at one year old she was diagnosed with FIP. She lived three more months. Her loss was heartbreaking at her age with then incurable FIP, and coming after the losses of four senior members of our feline family in the previous 12 months. But she also changed the lives of five other cats—Mimi came here with the little beans at three days old, had no more kittens and loved her indoor home. Lucy’s half-siblings had a life they likely would not have had of Lucy hadn’t called Mimi to the garden that day.

And together they all healed me from the devastation of my loss. I will never forget that I can heal. Lucy joined with them on the day they came here, July 29, and is part of them forever.

I didn’t catch Mimi’s photo that day until she had walked back into the garden.

Below is the water bowl Mimi drank from, with forget-me-nots gently floating in it. Though Lucy had left us, she brought Mimi to us, pregnant with the four beans who became the Four Siblings who changed all our lives here. Mimi entered my heart when I saw her in my garden, and perhaps I entered hers as well.

water with forget me nots — The water bowl Mimi always drank from, with forget-me-nots.

And Mimi also tells her story…

I know that one of my daughters lived here because I saw her at the window and talked to her at the basement door too…I didn’t really understand what happened with her because I went on and had more kittens, but one day I felt that daughter calling me, telling me to come over here, to get this lady’s attention. I did know this human was very sad about something, I could feel it coming from her whenever I was near—all of us animals could, even the senseless chipmunks…

So began Mimi’s story of this day. Last year Mimi was still with us for this anniversary, but this year they are all gone. Of course, I knew this would happen, a few years from now, but even on that day when I saw Mimi in the garden, then two weeks later when she arrived with the kittens, I knew this day would come. I’m so grateful I spent so much time making memories, photos, art, writing, they are all forever a part of me.

Links to Mimi’s story, and my writing about this…

From Mimi’s point of view in Mimi Mewsing.

For my first annual presentation at Pet Memorial Sunday I told the story of My Loss and Redemption.

And how They Rescued Me.

. . . . . . .

And more photos of Lucy

I took a series of photos of Lucy the same day I photographed her on her “beach towel,” that pink and gray rug that she loved to lie on in the sun coming in the basement door. They have a very special quality. Enjoy.

A Little Beauty

The series of photos below is on film. I’d been experimenting with lenses and exposure times and other techniques just before I’d gotten my DSLR and took these photos of Lucy in her last month, some black and white and some color, that were haunting in their intentional distortions of light and color. With all the costs of Lucy’s treatments for FIP after all the costs of losing four seniors the prior year, and then the arrival for Mimi and her children, I couldn’t afford to develop the film right away, and it sat for three years, waiting to be rediscovered. I had digitals and some other photos on film but kept remembering this series of photos and kept looking, until one day I got back to developing rolls of film that had been waiting, and there they were. And just like the series with Namir and Cookie and my garden I also preserved what we looked at that day, and the memories of all that lived in that moment. I will use one later today for another little dedication to her.

Lucy was a little beauty, and as she gazed out into the back yard through the basement yard we enjoyed a little beauty together.

black cat in silhouette — Lucy looking up at me.

The photos above were not modified in any way, just taken with the 50mm lens with a magnifier and a filter that diffused light areas, so the sunlight on Lucy’s sides is flashed out. It was taken in June 2007, and Lucy really was that slender; she was a slender kitten, but was just beginning to lose weight.

Below are a few of the things we were looking at out that basement door, as I took some time on a lovely morning to wander the garden and let my eye and my camera do what they would, something that has always eased my troubles as I clearly saw Lucy’s decline. Sometimes magic happens that I don’t even know about, and that was especially magical when you had to wait for photos to be developed.

wildflowers — Our back yard with buttercups and forget-me-nots.

The fleabane having a celebration.

The columbines looking like a cloud of fairies above a swirl of blue forget-me-nots.

White daisies, symbols of childhood innocence, and purity, floating among shadows and light.

A dandelion poof…for a wish to come true, perhaps?

dandelion fluff — Dandelion fluff, for wishes?

And then I wandered back to Lucy, sleeping on the steps, waiting for me.

I wish this photo wasn’t blurry; I know she had sat up, then crouched back down again, and with a manual-focus camera I couldn’t catch her fast enough, but I love her shadow in silhouette, and perhaps it’s blurry for a reason. She has cast a long shadow on us, but in a good way. The photo tells its own story.

black cat with shadow — Lucy and shadow.

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Lucy was one of Mimi’s kittens from a litter the previous year, as I tried to work with the owners of Mimi and a bunch of other cats. Lucy’s siblings had been adopted, but Lucy was not. Her curious and lively kitten presence through the last months of Sophie’s and Stanley’s lives enlivened us all as my house, after four losses in one year, dwindled down to four senior cats: Peaches, Cookie, Namir and Kelly. But after her spay in April Lucy was diagnosed with FIP. She lived three fairly healthy months, then seizures began the night of July 9, we took a trip to the emergency hospital but I knew that was futile and desperate. I called my veterinarian the next morning. That afternoon I took her to be cremated then came home and, standing at the basement door with the four who were left, we saw Mimi, and it all came together. A few weeks later Mimi and her newborns joined us, and the rest is history.

About the photo

I had to recreate the photo of Mimi on the garden path. I watched Mimi drinking from the water bowl then sniffing around the patio. I suddenly realized the import of the moment and ran upstairs to get my little digital camera. Racing out on the deck, but trying to be quiet so I wouldn’t frighten her off, I saw Mimi sitting at the end of the brick path. By the time my camera woke up and got ready to photograph she had gotten up and walked off into the greenery. I took several photographs and waited to see if she’d come back out, but the memory of her sitting there stayed with me. Later, after she’d come inside, I took a photo of Mimi and photoshopped her to be much wider than she is and added her to the photo I’d taken that day. I know it’s not authentic, but looking at it brings it all back for me.

About the litters of kittens

They had several unspayed females and found it nearly impossible to catch them between litters, nor to find a vet at the time who would spay a pregnant cat. Poor Mimi, with six litters, I’m so glad she came in when she did. I’m not sure she would have survived many more.

Art and Gifts Featuring Cats You Know!

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Feline Images from Portraits of Animals!

watercolor of cat in garden — “Garden Sketch With Mimi”, watercolor, 5″ x 7″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

It was a scene I loved for my love of my garden, my appreciation of Mimi relaxing in a place she’d once hunted for food to feed her kittens, and the memory of the generations of cats before her who enjoyed that very spot, this little patio and the verdance of my garden. Read more and purchase.

Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.