
This one always gets me. ;-;
Some tears began accumulating in my eyes, at one point my vision blurred. This is the hardest thing I've ever read.
Partially because I have a bit of experience with a sad stray cat.
Into my visit through the Ukraine a couple winters ago I sat on a swing set that I last sat on when I was six years of age. I was silently oscillating back and fourth watching the warm orange lights illuminate the rooms and kitchens from the old soviet apartment blocks. A cat limps out from a corner of the brush and happily hurries to my side, he looks at me and I pet him with my glove. Right then my uncle walks out and signals me to come inside, the cat though remained there sitting by the swing watching me leave.
I came back last year to visit and saw no similar cat around, only different cats rustling through the garbage.