Our beautiful Bernice celebrated her 20th birthday in March. She graced our lives with her love and non-stop purr song since we brought her and her sister Katie home at the age of 10 weeks. Yesterday afternoon Bernice took her purr song to her true forever home with God. She was a gentle soul who never raised a claw or spoke harshly to anyone, human or cat. A quiet, passive sort of cat Bernice was not fond of being held or sitting on a lap; she just wanted to be close to Ethan and I, always our constant purring companion. She was a wonderful “gramma” cat when we brought kittens into our home over the years – Miss Rachael Button, then BB and Goodie. She was never a mother, but had that inborn nurturing instinct animals seem to have and quietly tolerated the often rambunctious young ones, giving them a gentle “punch” if they invaded her space too much.
Bernice was an extremely robust cat; I don’t remember her ever being sick. She lost her hearing a few years ago but that was no problem; all we had to do was show her the food bowl and she would come running for her meals. Her veterinarians were amazed at her great condition at such an advanced age. Even until a few weeks ago, she would still jog up and down the stairs and jump up on to her chair next to the table…or on the table. She even still groomed her silky black coat fastidiously.
She had quite a voice; we would hear her yowling at the top of her lungs, thinking there was something terribly wrong, only to find her dragging a piece of string around the house clutched between her teeth like she was carrying a hunting-prize to give to us! This was a life-long activity; we always made sure there was a piece of string or rope laying around the house for her to “hunt.” As she grew older, like our other cats, she would call out loudly during the night. We’d just say “it’s OK Bernie!” and she would quiet down and go back to sleep.
Several months ago she developed a lipoma on her rear hip. The fatty tumors are benign and usually don’t cause problems. Both Katie and Callie had them. We talked with the vet decided to leave it be; she was just too old to attempt surgical removal. It began to get quite large but still didn’t seem to limit her mobility or bother her, but about 4 weeks ago it began to rupture. The vet said it would not heal because it was abnormal tissue and gave us some medication to apply to keep it dry and free of infection. Other than that, her heart and lungs and muscles were still excellent and we would just monitor the tumor and take it day to day. Last weekend, however, she took a turn for the worse, infection set in, and it we could see in her eyes that it was time to give her the peace she deserved. Yesterday afternoon she dined on some smoked turkey before we took her to the vet, and looked very pleased.
When we stroked her head and kissed her goodbye, she looked at me in her gentle, placid way, like she was truly ready to move on to a new life and that this was OK with her. She, as have all of our cats, brought us so much joy and always knew when we needed some comforting; they can always sense sadness or pain. Her last act was to look at us with comfort in her eyes. Our hearts are sad and the house is strangely quieter. We will miss our sweet, gentle friend and companion of so many years, but she will always live in our hearts and we know we will all be together again someday.

We are grateful to Pet Passages in Ontario, NY for their incredibly kind, compassionate and professional services. Bernice was cremated with dignity and respect and returned to us in a beautiful, cherry-wood box urn engraved with her name. Thank you, Pet Passages for taking final care of our beloved grand old lady.