I do apologize if interrupting your day with this rather sad post is upsetting, but this site has been a great home for my art and I was feeling the need to share this with the world I guess.

Just the other week, my (12? 13?) year old cat Shaq passed away. He was a great cat among our family, but he was getting old & sick, and his kidney was failing as well. He was such an elder, and it's somewhat peaceful to know that he's carried on to the next life after all he's been through, knowing that he died peacefully, and we gave him a happy life. But it's still hard to deal with loss like this. It is every time.

I originally wasn't going to post this as it's so precious & special, but the first few days after he died I was fed up in fighting some other demons of my own and didn't have much head space for the whole grieving process to kick in. But just earlier it hit me pretty hard, and I just felt the need to post this. To let the world hear about how awesome this cat was. Maybe I'll write an actual story about it instead of a picture with a big description to speak for it.

Shaq was a mystery. He was a 22 pound bombay cat with half a tail, and we adopted him as a rescue from a pet smart after first seeing him the way he was. We where told he used to be a stray or something, and it took him a bit to adapt to our house and get friendly. He lived with our family for more than a decade, and he was the most chill cat you could ever meet - not very social, but always there for you. Yet while being so chill, he had a very strong and resilient personality. And it makes a lot of sense, as he was quite the veteran with his stray cat backstory.

He always loved to sit by his water dish and sip on it while laying down, and sometimes dip his face in the water when it was hot out. He also liked to chew on pineapple leaves as if they where the next best thing since catnip.

In the writing of one of my main stories, there's a fictional universe of mine that partially revolves around a fictional mythos heavily inspired by the southwestern folklore of dia de los muertos (day of the dead), so due to all my writing in my passionate fiction, I've been putting a lot of research into the subject so I can make things as accurate as possible. And after looking so much into all that, and now having this mourning loss of our beloved cat, I just sorta felt it might help to make a picture like this, you know?

If you have viewed or ever decide to view my page, my furry OC named "Muffin" was heavily inspired by this cat of ours. Something's sorta peaceful knowing that it's almost as if he will live on in my art work and stories like that.

Shaq, you truly where a warrior. And most importantly: a friend. We love you, and may you rest in peace.