Author's Note - The Passing of a Cat

In regards to the last chapter, I hadn't intended to kill another cat but on Monday afternoon my husband and I had to put down his cat, Dearecca. What does this have to do with Erik? Well the original four cats of Clouder Number Nine are based on our four cats - Nala, Fiamain, Dearecca, and Phoebe. When I started I knew that the names Fiamain and Dearecca would be hard for readers so I changed them to Fiona and Erik. I also didn't want an all female clouder so I changed Dearecca to Erik.

Dearecca had had some neruological damage from a cheap flea treatment I had used on her. Her back legs didn't work so well for the last few years. But a month ago, she lost a lot of her movement and moved into the bathroom to be close to her food, water, and litter. Then late last week, she wasn't even able to move that much. So we had to do the hard thing and put her out of her misery.

That left me with a fictional cat counter part still living. I wasn't sure I wanted to continue with writing Erik with his counterpart gone. And I wanted a way to pay tribute to Dearecca, so Erik died. I didn't want to have him killed in a fire fight but I also didn't want to have him put down at Liz's office so I came up with the series of strokes.

Rest in Peace Dearecca! Rest in Peace Erik!
(These pictures are of Dearecca in her prime before she got sick.)