Farewell on Friday - Goodbye SPARKLE

Tama-Chan: As we go through life, we are sometimes fortunate enough to meet very special individuals who make us smile, who make us think , who make us act. In our six years of blogging, few cats have made such an impact on us as SPARKLE. Needless to say, we were first drawn to her blog because she was a Somali, and looked so much like us. But we soon realised that this was someone very special. There was such grace there, along with a slightly prissy nature that always made us smile. Her relationship with Binga, her wisdom, the way she took up so many causes and made us act when we might not have otherwise. Sparkle was well-named in that she shone, stood out among all of us.

A few days ago, we learned via the CB that she was very unwell, and the end came very, very quickly for her, far too quickly for any of us to even start getting used to the idea. Sparkle, we will miss you more than we can say, and we are across an ocean from you. We can but imagine the sadness of your family and send them all our purrs, along with many gentle woofs and soft neighs from Tommy and the Vs. We are glad to have been your friends and know your legacy will remain with all of us for a very long time. Farewell, Dear Friend. Your spirit will live on.

“Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn
And broils roots out the work of masonry,
Nor mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till judgement that yourself arise,
You in this, and dwell in lovers eyes.” 
 William Shakespeare, Sonnets