Aunt Faye and her cat Sophie were inseparable. In fact, though Aunt Faye never had any children, Sophie was like a child to her. I have to admit that the cat was amazing. Sophie always knew when Aunt Faye wasn’t feeling well. In fact, Sophie even knew when Aunt Faye’s feet were cold at night. Because that cat would snuggle up at her feet in bed, Aunt Faye used to call Sophie her “bed warmer.” My aunt was sort of hard of hearing, so when anyone came to the door of her apartment, Sophie ran to the door to alert her.

Good old Sophie the cat was getting on in years. My aunt would call me from time to time to ask me to drive Sophie and her to the veterinarian. In fact, I think she took better care of Sophie than herself. If Aunt Faye didn’t feel well, she wouldn’t go to the doctor; she would just take an aspirin. But should Sophie sneeze or cough with a hairball in her throat, we were on our way to the vet almost immediately. So it came as a bit of a shock when Aunt Faye called me crying hysterically “Sophie is dead! My little Sophie is dead!”

Between sobs, Aunt Faye explained, “You know I don’t sleep so good at night. So the doctor gave me some sleeping pills. I didn’t like the way they smelled so he told me to put a drop of vanilla extract into the bottle to make the pills taste like candy. So this morning when I was cooking in the kitchen, Sophie got into my bedroom and accidentally knocked over my bottle of sleeping pills, all of them.” — Beliefnet.com