In the summer of 1997 Megan went out to start her truck to take it to the Ford dealer where Dave was waiting for her so they could trade it in on a new little red Ford truck with air conditioning.   When she started it up, she heard a noise and quickly shut it off, thinking something broke just as she was going to get her new truck.   Then she realized it was an animal she heard and she thought she had killed it.   Opening up the hood, she found a palm-sized ball of black fur all of 6 weeks old.   

The decision to keep the kitten or not was left to Dave and when he held her, Shadow leaned against him and purred loudly to which he said "Everyone needs a home" and she became HIS cat.   

Every evening Dave & Shadow out walking was a fixture of what ever park we stayed in.   After our other cat, Kit, passed away, Shadow wanted both of us to go walking with her, but it had to be Dave holding the leash. First night was always a circle where she could keep an eye on the coach, then the walks would get longer as she got a feel for the park.   And in some parks she would develop a fondness for a specific site and even if we were in another site on another visit, she would pull us back to the ‘favorite’ site and meow loudly indicating that was where we should be!

While we knew that we would loose her one of these days, after 17 years that day was today.   She went very quickly and thankfully she is no longer in any pain.  

We will miss her haughty attitude as we took our nightly strolls and her incessant demands for food as the first morning light pierced the darkness.  She was a great traveler, visiting 46 of the lower 48 states plus Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada.