WHY INDY CAME BACK

We are currently on a 2.5 month house sit now, not a pet sit.

After four and a half years of pet sitting, that feels a little strange.

I’m used to having a cat around, more than one if I’m lucky.

And in the last 5 weeks, I’ve realized how much I miss having a kitty cat in the house.

So I did what I often do when something gets into my head: I started scrolling through old photos.

That’s when I found Indy again.

And Rocket.

And Junior.

Suddenly I was right back in that part of my life, remembering how our sweet cats came into our world and how much life we shared with them.

Anyone who has ever loved a pet knows exactly what comes with that love.

Joy, companionship, routines, little quirks, funny stories, and eventually the heartbreak of losing them.

It is devastating to lose a pet, but to lose 3 was absolutely heartbreaking.

You know from the beginning that you probably will not get to keep them forever, but somehow that never makes the goodbye easier.

Indy was our girl, and the first we picked from the litter.

Rocket and Junior were our boys, and they came to us soon after Indy stole our hearts.

I loved all three of them, and they were each wonderful in their own ways.

But Indy was my little girl, and actually tiny being the runt of the litter.

She was my baby.

And as I looked through those old pictures, I found myself missing her all over again.

Then I had an idea.

I started bringing Indy back into my life by putting her into some of the paintings I’ve created over the years.

It was surprisingly easy to use AI and drop the two of us into my paintings.

And once she was there, something opened up.

The stories just started flowing.

I began imagining what it would have been like if she had stepped right into those scenes with me.

Then I put her into one of my travel photographs.

And from there the story just kept growing.

Indy had become part of my creative world again.

She was such a sweet little girl, and I think she would have been endlessly curious about the world outside our home.

Our cats were indoor cats, and the only time they usually went outside was when they had to go to the vet, which meant they were definitely not fans of the car.

But they did travel with us once in a big way.

When we moved from Connecticut to Florida, we had three cats in the back seat.

That was probably the biggest trip we ever imagined taking with them, and trust me, that is a story for another day.

So yes, in their own way, our cats really did travel with us.

And now Indy is traveling with me again — just differently.

She is traveling through my photographs.

Through my paintings.

Through my imagination.

Through the life I’m living now.

She never actually cruised the world with us.

She never sat beside me in all the places we’ve been since those days.

But now I can imagine her there.

I can place her into the life we have now and let her peek into the world she never got to see.

Maybe that sounds silly to some people.

But I think grief and love often ask us to find our own ways of continuing the connection.

Sometimes we keep photographs.

Sometimes we tell stories.

Sometimes we bring someone we loved into our art and let them live there.

That is what I’m doing with Indy.

She was my little girl.

And now, in this sweet and unexpected way, she’s back in my life.

And honestly, I’m very glad she is.

Always in my heart.....never forgotten!

There's always a story!

If you would like to travel with Indy, you can follow along on her Instagram here:

Follow along