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Then I was eleven. She was the last of the kittens, the smallest and no one wanted to take her, but not us. And then one spring day she appeared at our house, we named the kitten Sheila. Since then my life has changed. I got a friend with whom I spent every day, we had fun together.
And although over the years our childhood games faded away, we became more mature and calmer, but we still spent time together. She often came to me before going to bed or when I was sad, lay down next to me, curled up in a ball and soothed me with her purring. Most of all, she loved to sit at the window and watch passers-by and birds :3
She was very obedient and never tried to steal anything from the dinner table. Except for one... Cookies. I have no idea why she liked them so much, but as soon as we forgot to close the bag or put the plate of cookies away at night, then in the morning we found the remains of cookie crumbs near the bowl. Yes, she never ate "stolen" food in the same place. All the goodies that she got, she first took to her bowl and ate them there Х) Those were the good times.

Everything changed in February 2022 when the war came to my city. The first few days, before going down to the basement, we were in the corridor of the apartment. We kept the cat in a carrier and were ready to take her with us at any time. In the moments when everything was quiet, we let her out. One day we were forced to go down to the basement. The cat got scared and probably hid somewhere in the pantry or under the closet, I don't know, we didn't have time to find her. From time to time we went up to the apartment and could not find her for several days. But the food in the bowl was shrinking, so we knew she was ok, we had no choice but to leave as much food and water as possible.
Then there was still snow on the street and the temperature was below zero. At some point, the windows were shattered in the apartment and it was blown through by a cold wind. In other people, the collected water in the baths turned into ice, to say nothing of a small bowl. On those few days when it was not safe to go up to the apartment, she had to lick the ice. A few days later we went up to the apartment and still managed to find her! At that time, she hid in a carrier and a pile of warm clothes that we left on purpose so that she could find somewhere to warm up. She had never been so scared. I took her in my arms, she was trembling. I held her until she calmed down.
We had small, very small supplies of water. We bottled it and wore it under jackets to keep it warm and it wasn't icy. Of course we gave her warm water to drink and fed her. Fortunately, even then the war left our area and we were able to return back to the apartments, and she was no longer alone.
I'm sorry that we couldn't take her back to the basement with us and could only hope that she was all right. I have no idea how she managed to survive all this but I'm proud of her.
A month later, my boyfriend and I left Mariupol. We did not have the opportunity to pick her up, so she stayed at home with father and was in safe hands. I haven't seen her for so long and I miss her.

I recently found out that she is no more... The parents didn't talk about it right away, but it happened in September. It's been so long. She suddenly fell ill. The vet said she had heart failure and there was nothing he could do to help her. I don’t know if the stress and cold caused this, would the same thing have happened if there hadn’t been a war? I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for her during this time when she was feeling bad...

My dear kitten has been with me side by side for half of my life. Almost 10 years... Soft clouds to you, my beloved kitten. Be sure you were the bravest of cats.
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