I recently found this letter that I wrote about Scooter a week after she passed over to the rainbow bridge in 2006.

Day 8 without Scooter.
I have cried my eyes out the past week. I miss my tiny girl. She was always so feisty. I definite free spirit. She lived totally for me. When she was little she would sleep on my chest. A total purr baby. She would wake me up in the middle of the night with her paw on my face or lick my lips so until I would give her some wet food. ( She always had dry food available.) Finally I learned to keep a bag of tender vittles by my bed so I wouldn't have to get up. I used to call her my "pig cat". She had to be everywhere that I was.
She definitely had nine lives. She came to me in the dead of winter in 1988. A tiny creature looking for food. She was so malnourished that she had no front teeth. But she sure was a fighter ! I took her to my vet and he said she was about 6 months old but she was so poor that she looked as if she were about 2 months old. Well, I nursed her to back to good health. Once she fell off a 3rd floor balcony, but she bounced back. Once she nearly got her tail bitten off by a squirrel and she survived that too. And another time she went missing and miraculously showed up two weeks later.
At the most, she weighed only 6 pounds. She truly was my tiny girl! Through countless moves and relationships, she was my comfort. When I would cry, she would always come and get on my lap. I told her everyday that I loved her more than anything in the world. And I did!
When the kidney disease finally took its toll, I had to make the agonizing decision to have her put to rest. The hardest thing I ever had to do. I held her and I know that she was ready to go -- so tired of fighting.
I miss you my feisty, tiny girl. You gave me so much love and joy. You have taught me how to love unconditionally and selflessly. Though my heart aches because I loved you so much, I find peace knowing that you are with God and that your little body is whole. There will never be another cat like you. You were my first baby and you will always be in my heart forever. I love you.