Good bye Ritva, my lovely sweet birch branch

Above: Ritva (October 2011-December 2014)

Ritva is gone... she left us last Christmas Eve and we buried her with her sister Tuula in Christmas day. She fought stubbornly and was a loving creature until her last breath. She covered me with kisses and groomed her sister Taika in farewell, and there she was gone... :( 3 years and 3 months my strong birch branch is flying now free in the wind (that´s what Ritva means because she was mostly white and light grey). We have dealt with a lot of sadness during this holiday season, we miss them both (our fufunchis Tuula and Ritva) so much! :(  Ritva was so strong and she proved she loved to live and made her own decision to fight until the end. She showed us she wanted so and it's also a worthy lesson to make us appreciate the gift of life a little bit more.  Taika is still here, mourning and really sad, she´s not coping very well to be alone and I really do not wish to grow old on her own, wondering if we must allow new "life" in, but missing my girls so dearly.  I want to think of a place where I can be with them again, with Kira, with Toto and with my fufunchis. That´s all I long and wish for if it could exist, but meanwhile it can exist in my heart, my imagination and in my dreams, and they are indeed still around me.

Here me singing to Ritva "you'll be in my heart" I sang it to her in her last moments too, she was turning 3 in the video but though she was already frail she leaves almost three months more.

I love you Tuula. I love you Ritva... the wind and the birch branch. Mummy, Daddy and Taika miss you.

Your love lives in me and so you live too!

Here you can see many videos of my fufunchis 1.0 Tuula and Ritva since they were babies. I'm happy to think they had a happy life, they indeed were very loved.