Our dear cat Penelope has died. Thus, the history today is personal.

Penelope’s early life is shrouded in mystery. She lived on the streets, but we do not know for how long and if she had been in a human household before. In 2016, she was found and taken to an animal shelter. For the next three years, nobody wanted to adopt her… until we came there and found her to be a somewhat reserved, but very sweet middle-aged lady.

She integrated into the family immediately: One day after her adoption, she already strategized how to blunt the Prussian invasion of Bohemia.

From then on, she was our constant companion. She read with us…

…celebrated Halloween…

and Christmas with us…

…rid our place of provocative ribbons…

…tested all boxes for their sitting qualities…

…and had secret admirers who sent her bouquets.

She even found the time to adopt a secret second identity as quirky nanny Purry Poppins.

Her love for board games remained undiminished. Sometimes we suspected that she considered herself to be a board game.

The only thing she could not abide was me going for business trips. Big-eyed protests were staged on my suitcase.

Yet when I came back and played a game with her, everything was forgiven.

While she certainly enjoyed the games…

…the most important part to her was spending quality time with her family – for example, sitting on my lap while I sorted counters into trays.

Penelope was with us during tumultuous years. No matter if Covid forced us to stay at home or Putin threatened to cut off our energy supply, it was always a comfort to have a furry, affectionate companion with us.

As Penelope aged, her health deteriorated. She succumbed to a lung edema on March 11. She will be greatly missed.