Mr. Sunshine’s Best Day
This evening during my dusk visit to the garden, as the shadows deepened and birds fluttered above and sang their bedtime melodies in the quiet, my aluminum wind chime made one single, loud note. I looked around at the trees for branches moving in a breeze, but there was none. I knew the sound was a signal that it was that magic time when the veil flutters like the birds’ wings and my yard was full of memories. Standing by Mr. Sunshine’s flower, which had also not moved at all when the wind chime sounded, reminded me once again what today was. My websites were offline last year when we came around to the first anniversary of Mr. Sunshine’s passing into spirit so I couldn’t post here, but I did post on social media. I thought I’d share that post today.
Mr. Sunshine looks over my shoulder as I lie on my belly on the ground to photograph the crocuses filled with sun.
A year ago today I walked home after dropping off my car for inspection, mild, very sunny, especially on the front porch when I came home. We’d been out in the back yard in the morning but there was never enough sun in February. I opened the front door for Mimi and Mr. Sunshine and they were ready, dropping down for a roll on warm concrete. After that other favorite spots around the yard, each of them active and curious and happy.
Mr. Sunshine loved hopping onto my back whenever possible and I always laughed, especially when he came up to my shoulder and looked into the viewfinder on my camera.
When the sun left the porch we went in, I went to get my car, and we had a nice evening with all of us in the kitchen, then in my office at my computer before I put him and Mimi in the bathroom with food and we all went to bed.
Mr. Sunshine had always been like the adult in the room among his siblings and with fosters, steadfast and serious. Though he was diagnosed with a serious condition first in April 2022, and when he and Mewsette had ultrasounds in May 2023 the veterinarian asked about his quality of life with the mass on his spleen and other smaller masses and nodes and so on, he was good. He had a mission, and he was with each of his siblings as a safe harbor of strength through all the weeks and months and days as we lost Mewsette in June 2023, Jelly Bean in July 2023, and Giuseppe in December 2023.
And then he let go and thoroughly enjoyed his last two months indoors and out, very close with Mimi and affectionate with me and the other cats. Lots of purrs and his tail high in the air.
So Mr. Sunshines’s last day was full of warm sunshine and his mom and his favorite activities, right up to the last moment.
I’ve been trying to preserve his flower on the garden fence until this day, the one he’s sniffing in that wonderful photo of him with Mimi and Giuseppe from October 2023. I had to rescue it a couple of times this winter, it’s a little battered but it’s spinning out there in the sun, spinning in a mild breeze.
In 2026: It was fully the way Mr. Sunshine wanted it. And I can see why it seems I’m talking to Mr. Sunshine who still seems to be the keeper of them all. You know that I always write about the experience of their passing. Here is the link to that article about Mr. Sunshine, The Next Life.
Little visits
You never know where the messages will come from or how the visitor will appear to you. But they will. They love and care about you as they did in life and still want to be near you.
Thank you for following our grief journey after losing seven members of our feline family.
I hope sharing our experiences have helped you in some way, as sharing my experiences with you helps me.
You can read all the articles related to their loss by tapping the images in the side bar and in articles.
Also read articles about Pet Loss and Pet Loss in the First Person, where I share my own experiences.
Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals
Fine Art • Photography • Gifts • Greeting Cards • Books • Commissioned Portraits & Artwork
Click above to read and listen to Little Visits.
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.
Subscribe to my e-newsletter
Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter.
© 2009-2025 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski
Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
PORTRAITS OF ANIMALS WEBSITE
FACEBOOK | X | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM | THREADS | BLUESKY | YOUTUBE | SUBSTACK | EMAIL
Discover more from The Creative Cat
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Sometimes my heart breaks for you.
I understand why his flower means so much. He sounds like an amazing cat.
He was, very quietly amazing. I’ve been seeing in photos from previous years how often he was in my work space to supurrvise me, and his early relationships with his siblings.
All things come to pass, living sentients and inanimate. It is nice you kept his sunshine flower. Maybe there needs to be more such sunshine in the garden to signal rebirth, which we are all destined to be in buddhist beliefs.
A lovely post in memory.
Purrs
ERin
My garden has always been the keeping place for feline spirits, even those who never went outdoors. I always wondered if it was because the soil was open to the elements and things in our worldly cycle of birth, growth, death and rebirth. It’s just about time to start up the beds for this year, if they ever dry out enough with all this rain. But after all that I think it should be a spectacular gardening year, and I’ll be out there with all those happy spirits.