Amazing buddy, hunter and now, hunted.
I reel from Walter Kitty’s disappearance. There’s a void of absence in my gut, and it squeezes shut tight when I remember him. I wince from the pain that crashes in with the same intensity that my love for him carries. He’s gone.
I seek equanimity. His magnanimous presence– his snuggles, biscuits, love-bites, face-rubs, sharpening claws on the carpet, sleeping on the bed, bringing in mice, soft meows from the other side of the basement window, dignified face with long white eye-brow 
whiskers peering in– all these were a great gift, a bonus. He enriched my life so much. This good life, already. As I experience the other side of this, the missing, I seek to rest in the middle. I seek peace, this moment in it’s perfection…
He died playing his favorite game. He was so attuned to life, to the great Mother Nature of wild things, great nurturer and destroyer. He was an active participant of the predator/prey dance– How many mice that kitty brought in, and ate their head off. and also the birds… How fitting he’d get taken out by a coyote, or foxes– darn 
trickster! I now have an even greater reverence for the animals I eat…
I had a piece of him to bury, thank you coyote… I have his pictures, thank you modern technology. I exalt his memory, I give thanks. I try to let it be. I see him go on his crocodile walk, swaggering like a lion to kitty heaven.
Letting him slip into the other side… somewhere between being and not being….
I’ll always love you, Walter Kitty. Peace~
Nina Lois is a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Denver obtaining a Master's Degree in Humanities with a B.A. in political science. Her passions are broad when it comes to the human condition. She is deeply interested in philosophy, psychology, environmental and social justice, peace studies, music, nutrition, tradition, and progress. 
Upon her imminent graduation, she wishes to contribute to the health, wealth, and happiness of the community through involvement, writing, and research. For goodness's sake, love the body, cultivate the mind and a garden, and feed the soul!
Thanks again