Many people have asked if the cat on my photo badge in tf2 is my actual cat. Talking about it makes me sad for a long while, so I decided to put an infobox to let people know without having to repeat it and spend a night awake until 3 am crying. This will be a LONG read, and I don't care if it's oversharing.

The cat was my cat, but she died due to complications from old age and cancer. I had her for 18 years, of those she'd have lived maybe 1 in the shelter she was in. I got her during my freshman year in high school, and for as long as I can remember, she spent every single night that I was home snuggled up sleeping under my arm. She was one of the most intelligent cats I've ever seen, to the point that my mom and I swore she understood English. You could hold conversations with her as if she was a normal person and she'd seem to understand. She was with me during the darkest times of my life, when my fiance died. During her final days, my poor little girl started to get seizures, and lost control of her back legs, and was in pain every day. She was too old for surgery (the vets said she wouldn't live through it), so the only thing left to do was have a vet come to our house and euthanize her. On the last night of her life, despite being unable to use her back legs, she snuck out from my mom watching her, and crawled to me, and wanted to snuggle with me, despite it all. I held her in my arms as she was given a sedative, and told her "Let's snuggle and go to sleep" and pretended to be sleeping with her as she was put down. I tried to hold in my tears in front of her because if she saw me crying, she'd try her best to not leave me. I wanted her to think I was ok as she passed. When the vet confirmed her heartbeat was gone, I howled and cried. She was more than just a cat. She was there for me when I got a hole in my heart that'll never recover, and now there's 2. I dug her grave myself, and we wrapped her in one of my favorite shirts. I don't care if it's pink, I wear her collar on my wrist shamelessly. I try to be more happy that she was in my life than sad that she left it, but it's not that easy.
Remember this. Whether you have a cat, or dog, or bird or snake or whatever, do NOT be annoyed if they want your attention while gaming. Games and data can be preserved. Your loving pets cannot. I don't care if you're in the middle of an uber, or an RGL comp game or what. Be with your pets. I regret every time I gently moved her from in front of the computer screen.

I hope this informed you of everything you need to know about her, it's getting way too hard to type while crying. If you try to get me upset my talking about it, I feel genuine pity for you, and hope you become a better person and find some real friends.