When we lose someone we love

My sweetie Maggie Mae. What a lovely girl she was. Maine Coon we think.

She was adopted from a PetsMart adoption center for my Grandma. She was so loving, she sat on grandma's recliner above her head most of the time. She took good care of Grandma.

When I'd come to visit, she always got so excited and wanted to sit in my lap. That sweet girl was usually in my lap before I sat down.

When Grandma broke her hip, she went to a care home and Maggie came to live with us and our 8 other kitties.

Now Maggie, she'd rather bean only kitty. She liked being the main attraction. More so, she liked other kitties to leave her be.

She got in to a scuffle with a wee baby Jasper when they first came home, Jasper came out the worse for it, but for some reason, from that moment on, she was his idol, his love. He ADORED her.

Every night, we do canned kitty food for all, he's run back and forth from the kitchen to Maggie as if to say "come on, it's treat time" "I don't want you to miss out."

He will certainly miss her most of all the other kitties. She was his girl.

She was sure my girl. On my lap often when I'd sit to watch TV. Always with a blanket of pillow under her.

When I was recovering from surgery a few years back, she never left my lap. I had to use a big heavy pillow over my incision and she was always on that pillow taking care of her mama.

Bless her sweet soul. May you be at peace Maggie, be with Grandma, know that you are very very loved and missed and we will be together again.

I've been reading the China Study. So far, and I've only finished 3 chapters, it's amazing. Given my family history of cancer and the years of studies they've done in this book, I can say, "you betcha, I'm glad to be a vegetarian."

I do find it amusing though, now, being on the other side of the "new vegetarian" that everyone is in a scramble to find meat replacements.

Don't get me wrong, I use them and quite like most of them. But finally I've learned that meat isn't" what's for dinner". I can cook with or without replacements.

I LOVE my lentil stew, love my chili, my Quinoa and black bean salad. Beans and grains, nuts and seeds, fruits and veggies really do have all the protein we 'need'. (plus all the other good stuff meat doesn't have).

I hope this revelation will cause a shift in our way of thinking as a nation. Maybe now we can stop that disgusting factory farming. There will always be the die hard meat eaters, those that think there is no other way to live. Those that believe that vegetarians must be crazy or weak folks. That's ok, if the demand for meat lessens, the atrocities that happen in these factories will no longer be a necessity to meet the demand.

But, I digress.

I am just very glad I did all the research I did years ago, glad most of my family followed suit as they learned what I learned, and glad that we are all much healthier for it.