Cross stitch pattern of two cat siblings with the text “Best Sisters”. This was my very first commission from years ago, well first that wasn’t a family member. I remember thinking that using the tails as the S’s was super clever. Download the PDF here: Cat Sisters Pattern

Grid Size: 92W x 87H
Design Area: 6.43″ x 6.07″ (90 x 85 stitches)
Colors: 7

Jenny isn’t a Patron, but she’s secretly a witch who flies around on warm clear nights with her one eyed cat, picking up guys and giving them the time of their lives in the sky above the city. One day she’ll find just the right one and they’ll fly together til the end.

I tend to crack jokes even in stressful situations. I guess I want so badly to break away from that feeling that I’ll make light of something even if I really shouldn’t.

I had to put down my childhood cat recently. I say childhood, but anything more than five years ago is childhood for me since I’m just as much an idiot now as I was back then so I might as well say child.

Phoebe came to me after college when I moved in with a good friend to split rent. Sarah was the one who really owned Phoebe since I had mild allergies and really couldn’t sleep in the same room as her. She was a rescue, one of Sarah’s friends was moving and couldn’t take a cat with her so we took her in. Two chicks living together, adopting a cat, we must have looked like lesbians. We weren’t, but her support got me through some tough times and I’m grateful.

This pattern was from back when I first started out. Sarah and I had a roommate, Jenny, a kind older lady with a sordid past and one eyed cat, definitely a witch now that I think about it. I made this pattern as a commission for her and her sister, technically my very first patron even before I had a Patreon.

Phoebe didn’t like her cat, Sammy, one bit. We had a hard time socializing them. Phoebe would bat her paw menacingly under Jenny’s door and she definitely stole Sammy’s catnip stuffed banana. Phoebe didn’t even like catnip all that much. She just wanted it because Sammy liked it.

I remember when we moved across state lines together and little Phoebe was so scared. She escaped her carrier and got loose in the car. Poor girl hid under the seats for half the trip. She always hated drives.

She always hated having her paws touched too. That’s how I was certain something was wrong when she didn’t have to awareness pull back when I touched her paws.

The vet said that she likely suffered a stroke. Sometimes cats pull through, but Phoebe had other medical issues and wasn’t improving. She was making a lot of involuntary movements too. I just wish she could have told us if she was in pain or not.

I think the hardest part for me about the whole process was leaving her behind in the room. I understand now why there are so many ancient graves of people posed on their sides or holding a loved one who died at the same time. I couldn’t just leave her there on the couch with her feet at odd angles. I felt like I had to leave her looking comfortable. I curled her up in the pet bed they had given us to move her around in. I put a blanket over her tucking her in, so that, when I looked though the window into her room for the last time, she looked like she was just lying there sleeping peacefully.

Going through this, I hate how human caskets lie people down on their backs. I never thought of why I thought it was creepy, but now I see. It looks so uncomfortable, like they’re lying in a hospital bed, not sleeping the way they did when they were alive.

I would want to be placed on my side, curled up and comfortable, just like Phoebe.