Charlie and I began dating when I was 17. From that point on it was just the two of us. Until we moved into our first Apartment 4 years later. We had gotten Nevan just a month prior to moving in on New Year's Eve. Nevan was one of a kind. I really mean that. Let me take a few steps back...
My Aunt had found Nevan and his brother, Fenway, just newborn kittens with pointy tails right before a huge Blizzard had hit. Had she not have seen them we wouldn't have had Nevan. We originally didn't want a cat, no way, not us. As we were over my Aunt's for Charlie to work on her computer the kittens were running around. To this day I feel Nevan chose us. He climbed on Charlie's lap while he worked on the computer and even he said "this kitten is pretty cool". It goes without question we wanted him.
I chose the name Nevan because it meant "Little Saint". Being the time of the year and the circumstance I felt that fit him just right. And you know... it really did.
The problem was we were not due to move into our Apartment until New Year's Eve and I was so sad. I mean this was OUR baby and I didn't get to see him everyday for an entire month before moving into our home. Charlie however did..
Charlie was amazing. I mean that. He made Nevan a home in his bedroom, it was out of cardboard boxes. Nevan had his own little apartment within Charlie's apartment. He set up a WebCam which was called the "NevCam". He created a link to the WebCam that any time during the day if I were home I could click on it and see what Nevan was doing. I shared it with anyone I knew and friends that were away at College would write me saying that in between their classes, their favorite thing to do was hop on the NevCam and see what mischievous he was up to. He was loved.
Living in our first apartment together, starting fresh as a couple and with Nevan made us this family. I remember being in that moment still when we had him and put him down in the Apartment the first day. I remember him being cautious, sniffing around and then within an hour he was hyper jumping up the doorways.
He was a cat that ran to the door to greet everyone and always was the center of attention. He loved being loved. That was Nevan.
I won't go into our life story together because well that's 11 years more worth. I will try to sum it up. We later gained more fur babies. Minnie another cat and Peanut our Yorkie. This was our family. We never thought we could have children and these were/are our children. When we went through all we did to have Autumn our lives changed. She immediately was born into a family with loving fur siblings. They all loved her even with the stresses it all entailed.
I've been documenting Autumn's life since she was born as everyone knows. I'm thankful for that. Especially knowing we lost one of our children sooner than we ever imagined. Nevan passed away last Tuesday. We both felt the fur babies would be around for Autumn to say their names and we can hear her say that she loves them. We'll continue to show her videos and photos of Nevan and talk about him daily because I want her to know about him and always have memories even if it's us sharing them with her.
Nevan was an incredible cat. A loyal friend. He kept my belly warm every night of his life with us. His paws rest on my belly while Autumn was in there growing. He was there to comfort on days I just felt lost. He stayed by my side during each surgery I've had while healing. He was the sweetest of Cats and we'll love our first baby, our Little Saint, Nevan forever.
