My wife found her at a friend’s house during his garage sale, curled up and scared against the curb of a busy street. She seemed barely old enough to be away from her mother and covered in flea bites. The nearby vet said he’d seen several kittens the same age and the same coloring that day, all found near garage sales. Someone had been dumping kittens where they knew they’d be found. I didn’t really want another cat, but when my wife put this frail little thing in my lap – how could I say no to either her or the kitten.

She got the name Tequila later that day as we were discussing what to name the new kitten. The old 50s song came on the radio and my then 4 year old son insisted that would be her name.

Somewhere along the line, she became my cat. I was the only one she wanted. She’d swat and bite at others, but curl up in my lap for hours and purr. She mellowed as she got older (and the kids got older), but she was still my cat. The image above was shot several years ago when she jumped up in the middle of a product shoot I was doing at the house.. so I decided she would be the product for a few shots. She bored of it quickly and I went back to work.

She never did lose the frail appearance of that little kitten, only reaching at best 4 pounds, so she was always referred to around the house as The Kitten (or sometimes my kitten if she’d been bad). She always seemed like she was cold, wanting to snuggle up tight against me. She had a hard time keeping food down her entire life.. if she ate too much, she’d leave a present – usually in my chair because that’s where she slept when I was gone.

She’d stopped grooming herself a while back and had been going downhill in overall health for the last several weeks. She passed away during the night last night.

I’ll miss my kitten. Hopefully she’s finally warm.