The summer had been rough for Der Kommandant. She'd successful outlived her nemesis, who fled the kingdom three summers prior, and so she and I finally had a chance to get to know each other.She softened in her old age, her cap hung up, and insisted she get her share of the bed, or under the covers if demanded. She seriously would not leave me alone until she could use my body as her own personal heating pad.On my birthday last year came the first signs that our story together was coming to a close... but she soldiered on, even past the point of common sense, refusing to let go. And that was our summer, her fighting her last fights, determined to hold her place.She was laid to rest on a crazy hot September evening. The heavens themselves honored her passing by raining for a couple of days after.Her empire still stands, however mapped out, literally, in her dirty paw prints. I will take care of it for you, Poops. Nightynight.

The end of an empire -She'd been cast off from her homeland and roamed the wilds before we crossed paths, hostage to a woman who collected cast off or wandering former-leaders such as herself.She'd been captured and brought to us to be "fixed." But she was graceful and charming and beautiful... craftily hiding her lust for power while a prisoner in our facility. When we got her on the table, however, we learned that she had already been fixed, and someone had had her claws removed. The wilds were no place for this creature, no matter how brutal her previous reign, and so I could not let her go back with the woman who'd captured her.A stay of execution.I took her home with me, despite being warned she was "wild as a march hare!"And she totally let her crazy out once given access to her new kingdom, immediately declaring war on the sole other inhabitant of this place - The Fat White One (a cat, not me. damn).That was 15 years ago.