One year ago, we lost my good boy of twenty years. He wasn’t the first cat we lost (we love you, Loki and Nyka), but he was the first I raised from a baby (with all respect to Jooky – my first boy, who stayed with my parents when I left home. Also a good boy and king shedder – at least until we got Mazy).

I got Magnus at six weeks, and for the next nearly twenty-one years, he curled up in my lap and as tight as he could in bed, in between terrorizing everyone else.

Most people thought you were the devil, and you certainly could be a real dick, but I loved you. I’m sorry that doctor gave you a clean bill of health, when you were clearly on your way out.

I miss you, buddy. We’ve gotten a new cat and two new dogs (dogs!) since you’ve been gone, and we love them to death, but nothing can ever really replace the unlimited and unconditional love you brought me. You would have loved Mazy; she probably would have reminded you of that neighbour’s boxer Dakota you loved when you were a kitten.

You still exist, in my mind; as long as the memory of you lives, and your atoms are floating around, you’re still here. Maybe the religious folks will be right and there is something beyond this life, and you can curl up in my lap in the hereafter.

Target: 200 words
Written: 1517 words, short story: Get Back Again

Read: Start With Why, Simon Sinek
Comics: Fanboys Vs. Zombies 1-4
Music: Yellow Blues, Rollins Band and Yellow Submarine, The Beatles (kinda went the other way there, right?  Frozen Man has such Fight Club vibes.)