Coalescent Dedication

Coalescent is dedicated to my beloved cat, Holly. She was born on March 28th, 2007 and sadly passed away on May 14th, 2025 at 18 years old. She was my beloved kitten, and since she was born in my family’s garage, I knew her for her whole life. She was really sweet, though mostly just to me. She wasn’t fond of other people, and she certainly wasn’t fond of the other animals. They annoyed her greatly. Even in her old age, she wasn’t afraid to smack them for playing too close to her. She wasn’t afraid to fight against her daily pills, either, and she was an expert at secretly spitting them out. It was quite impressive.

Holly lived a very simple life. A cozy life. She loved laying on the vents when the heater was going, laying on blankets and warm beds, and, in her old age, spending time outside in the sun. She was never an energetic cat, playing for only short periods of time before finding a warm place to rest. Aside from just being cozy, she really loved chicken. She would sit and meow at us in the kitchen whenever we boiled some.

Her death wasn’t entirely unexpected. A few years ago, her kidneys started to fail. It took some time to find a renal diet she would eat, a problem that was inflamed by her IBD. Slowly, she also developed hyperthyroidism, a heart murmur, and high blood pressure. Her ability to groom herself decreased dramatically, so I had to brush her frequently (which she usually enjoyed). Her hearing was probably also getting worse. Then, a few days before May 14th, she developed a UTI. The treatments from the vet improved her mood slightly for a while, but in the end, they weren’t enough. She passed away at home, lying beside me on the couch. Until that infection, though, she had been happy and well despite her health problems, and for that I am grateful.

Since Holly was there for me for 18 years, I wanted to dedicate this book to her. She was my first kitten, the one I had spent years wishing for, and she was with me through a lot of major life changing events. I wrote the original dedication page before her passing and published a copy for myself to work on editing. It arrived after her death, and I couldn’t help but cry. I added her birth date and death date to the dedication page.

I wish she could have been here for my book’s official debut, but I think she was ready to go.