A heartwarming story of kind neighbors

(TL;DR below) Last week our 16.5 year old cat, Mako (gray with a white belly), known by passers-by from chronically sitting in the window, got outside of our flat(zone 1) and was struggling to breathe and a random few people knocked on my door and told me he needed help.

A small group of them helped my husband figure out an after-hours vet and when the uber pulled up and didn’t want to allow the cat in, an elderly lady shouted at the driver saying the cat needed to get emergency care, and the driver changed her mind and said, “Get Him in then!”

I couldn’t bare to see my cat like that, so I remained in the hall. And I stayed home with my other cat. Mako passed away in my husband’s arms in the uber.

The next day was the first time my husband of 15 years and I have ever lived together without both cats. No meows woke us up. The sister cat was confused. My husband is a combat vet with PTSD and the cats have helped his anxiety and blood pressure all these years. He shared that with the emergency veterinarian, who said he is also a combat veteran from Poland, and he cried.

That Saturday morning, people kept walking by looking for Mako in the window, and my husband would open the window and explain that Mako won’t be in the window anymore. We put the cat picture and pink note in the window.

We recognized some regulars, who shared stories about how they looked forward to seeing Mako on their daily walk down our street (the window is directly adjacent to the to the sidewalk), and some people we didn’t recognize even gasped and cried after reading the note on the window.

My husband tried to lighten the mood by saying if anyone wants to see the sister cat when they pass by, just knock on the window and we will try to get her to say hi.

Our neighbors in our building were sad and one gave us flowers and one little girl who says hi to us daily, brought my husband some fur from our cat that she found in the hallway, as Mako liked to lounge by the hallway window on the landing.

The next day, there was a broken heart taped to our window, signed Max (we don’t know this person), and the next day was the Cat angel drawing of a cat wearing a halo, signed by someone named Calista. These were lovely gestures, so unexpected and such a comfort.

Despite living here only 11 months, the sense of community during the sudden passing of our Mako has been amazing. This city is an intense place and I just wanted to share evidence that there is still a sense of community.

TL;DR Our cat who was a fixture in our neighborhood, always sitting in the window, suddenly died and was honored with flowers, cards taped on the window, hugs for us, and caring gestures from neighborhood people, known and unknown.