This is a beautiful story about a stray cat named Petunia and her relationship with a family.

Guest Post by Rose (Pearl Cat)

Petunia came with the house. There's space enough under the house for small animals. She had 2 sets of kittens before we could trap her and get her spayed. We kept one kitten, Pearl.

We slowly made friends with Petunia. There was also a big Tom cat we named Captain Balls. We could pet him. When you have strays spayed and neutered they tend to stick around and keep away other stray cats. So there weren't any kittens her for a few years.

This past winter the Seattle area was hit with a 2 or 3 week long super freeze.

Petunia's eye had become worse. She had a small spec or injury to her eye when we first saw her, and it got steadily worse. We were able to catch her and get her to the vet for meds in November. She was so good.

Then in the news was the threat of the big storm. She wouldn't come inside and I was worried. Then on the day before it was to freeze that night, I looked at Petunia and her eye was bleeding. I freaked, called the vet and told them I will bring her in as soon as I catch her. To my surprise I picked her right up, she was so weak.

She stayed at the vet through that weekend till they worked on her the fallowing Monday. Then when they took her eye out, there was a tumor behind it. They sent in a biopsy and it came back as aggressive cancer.

We got her home just before Christmas. She owns the Ebay room now, gets all the food and bleeding she wants and has bird TV out her window.

May 11 09. Petunia quit eating and drinking on Friday. The cancer spread to her mouth and she also started having trouble breathing. She could pur for a couple days, then wouldn't walk anymore. She passed away quietly with us by her side today.