A crimson sunrise painted a smile on the Easter Sunday sky. The village streets were quiet, as a soft breeze whispered its secrets. A shadow danced in the dawn light. Easter eggs stealthily appeared on each doorstep. A mystery Easter bunny slid through dawn’s door, joining the vanishing night like a ghost of every childhood dream.

Pastel coloured eggs in tiny baskets littered each doorway like rubbish discarded from heaven. Chocolate lay in wait for the unsuspecting children within.

On one doorstep, however, there was a chocolate coated difference. The large egg in this basket moved from side to side, like a football waiting to be played with.

Jenny opened her front door to welcome the day, and smiled at the sight of the Easter egg. Then a frown silenced her smile. Why was the egg dancing like an Easter flower in a March winter wind?

Quickly, she seized the basket and slammed her door shut behind her. In the kitchen, she peeled off the wrapper and prized open the large egg. There was a real tabby kitten inside, a ball of grey and white bliss, a dream come true in living fur, a mystery meow in motion.

The last few months had been the worst of Jenny’s life, stress a dark shadow behind her that never disappeared. Relationship breakdown and redundancy had knocked her over like a hurricane. Slowly, tiny kitten step by step, her life had begun to bud again like a knocked down tree praying for Spring.

Today, a kitten, a sign … a promise of possible.

So Teo the Tabby became her new best friend; like a guardian angel blessing her life, everything suddenly turned to gold. A fantastic new job opportunity, and a best friend from years ago suddenly moving to the next town. Life lit up with kitten fun and purring success.

Jenny had never been happier. Teo meowed to an inner muse and purred as if she had found paradise.

Years passed like dandelion seeds drifting in a lazy summer wind. Each Easter, a mystery egg appeared in a wicker basket on Jenny’s doorstep. And inside each egg, a cat toy.

Then one year, there was no egg. Teo rubbed around Jenny’s legs that morning, a purr of promise in her eighteen year old eyes.

The next day Teo was gone, her food dish untouched, her bed empty. She never returned.

Jenny was afire with angst. Depression danced inside her, a tango of tears. However later on her doorstep she found … one white whisker. The mystery had mutated to madness.

Slowly, the pain of loss fell away like raindrops running down a roof. Days turned in to months and in to a year.

It was Easter once more. And on Jenny’s doorstep …

An Easter egg. Jenny seized the wicker basket and ran to her kitchen. Quickly peeling back the foil, she opened the egg.

There was no kitten inside the chocolate egg. However there was a piece of pink paper, proclaiming:

“A cat’s love is a legacy that lasts forever. Feline fondness has lit your heart and like magic ink will never fade. Memories are yours to last, like an Easter egg never to be opened, a promise of a tomorrow that never arrives. Believe that one day you will meet your best friend again, in the paradise of unlimited potential. Until then, know that a cat’s heart is within yours; years and decades will not silence its beat. Fare thee well, cat lover.”

Tears formed a waterfall on Jenny’s face and neck. Her curtains lifted in a silent wind, and she felt the presence of Teo.

There was only one thing for it. Jenny loved Teo, but it was time now to cherish another stray soul. So she visited the local cat rescue, and came home with a bundle of black and white fluff.

It was an Easter of new beginnings, a happy hello to the future. However the past still purred within never to be silenced.

For the memory of a special cat stamps an indelible mark on our soul.

In honour of yesterday, let’s treasure a new tomorrow.