Maybe part of the reason i miss Ojo so much is that he was Sandi’s familiar. Lots of witches have cats as their familiars, so it makes sense that i became more attached to Sandi’s familiar after she died.

I don’t have to worry about scaring Ojo with the vacuum cleaner anymore.

I don’t have to worry about stepping on Ojo‘s tail when i walk around the apartment anymore.

Ojo will never show up in the bathroom in the middle of the night with me anymore.

I can open up a canister of whatever and not have Ojo scrambling to the kitchen in case it’s cat food (because he knew he could always wrangle a treat out of it from his old man, who was such a softy).

I don’t have to prepare meals ahead of time for Ojo, usually in batches of four, with essential fish oil, ground up steroid pills, and powder from gabapentin capsules added to each meal. But it was 100% worth it; after a while i didn’t give it a second thought.

And i miss it. I miss him.

Sandi & i were blessed to have Ojo in our lives, and Ojo benefited too. Lots of love all around.

“To everything, Turn! Turn! Turn!
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose, under heaven” [The Byrds, 1965, Pete Seeger 1959]

Just keep going; that’s all you can do, really. Turn!

(And i can finally pull the blinds down all the way on my porch door — Ojo doesn’t need a space to look out anymore.)