Sunshine, the mother to Caramel, Sasha, Aurora, and the two Gingersnaps living with me, was put to sleep last night.

Sunshine started to behave lethargically last evening, so much so that my daughter took her to the emergency vet. Sunshine was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. My daughter and her boyfriend then made the decision to put Sunshine to sleep.

We have no idea how old Sunshine was. When she was picked up, her original owner had just died. At the time no-one had any idea that Sunshine was going to have a litter of kittens either. My daughter found out when she took Sunshine into the vet to check her out. Once that was determined my daughter worked to make sure that Sunshine was properly fed and made as healthy as possible. As a consequence Sunshine gave birth to five very healthy, very cut little kittens. From the moment the kittens were born Sunshine was the perfect mom. That’s the key reason why all five kittens turned out as cute and loving as they have; it came from Sunshine, both nature and nurture. During that period my daughter and her boyfriend taught Sunshine and the kittens about toys and how to play with them. They all learned to play, even Sunshine. Watching the Gingersnaps play with their various cat toys is wonderfully entertaining.

My daughter, naturally, is taking Sunshine’s loss the hardest. I’ve been talking with her to provide support. I have my own experiences with loosing Lucy, and it was the motivation for adopting Sunshine’s two male kittens, the Gingersnaps, named Beau and Luke (after the Dukes of Hazzard). Rather than sitting around and dwelling on the loss, my daughter and her boyfriend are headed out this weekend to look at kittens at one of the shelters. They may not adopt, but it’s far better than staying at home.

Sunshine may be gone, but she lives on in her litter.