During this round of illness, I’ve been missing the one thing that comforted me the most–Aremid. He was a reliable security blanket in all sorts of rough times. I could always count on him to curl up right up again me, or to drape his front paws over my arms or my chest. Sometimes, I would have to go grab him from somewhere else, but he almost always stayed put wherever I placed him. He was the best.

My other cat, no matter how much I love her, will never do these things. It’s not in her nature, not after spending 15 years as the second cat who always saw Aremid getting my initial attention. I think she learned to stay out of the way. She’ll lie on the bed a foot away, but she doesn’t cuddle. She wants to be left alone.

The grainy photo above is what I call “Healer VIII”, part of a series of poor-quality but meaningful photos to me of Aremid being there for me during times of healing. This one was taken three weeks after my transplant surgery.

I found some pictures from last August that I hadn’t gotten off my laptop and onto Flickr. There are three other similar ones. I’ll just post one here.