It was summer 2016. I was sitting on the hardwood floor in my living room, trying to stretch out the jean shorts I bought a size too small to save a buck. (Spoiler: it didn’t work.) My boyfriend at the time was sitting on a chair next to me, on his phone, chatting with me while I was busy with my project.

And then I heard a strange scratching sound coming from behind the Tv stand. I knew it could be no other than my Puddy baby scratching at the wall. He used to do this when he was a kitten, but he hadn’t done it in years.

“Cat, what are you doing?” I asked him, looking up from the denim shorts on the floor. A few seconds of silence followed and I looked back down. And then it happened again.

Scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch.

I got annoyed and shouted “Hey!” to try to get his attention and get him to stop. And then I heard it.

Buzzing. Growing louder and louder. Oh no. Oh no.

I watched as about 40–50 wasps flew out from a small crack in the wall.

Panic. All I could do was panic. My chubby cat bolted away quickly, avoiding the sudden swarm.

There were wasps in my living room. So many wasps. More than 50. All I could do was run and scream. I told my boyfriend to run. He ran outside and into his car to avoid any confrontation with the wasps.

The scariest part of it all was that my boyfriend was severely allergic to wasps, and if he got stung, he would almost certainly go into anaphylactic shock.

The exterminator came the next morning, bright and early. She got rid of the wasps and gifted us with a lovely hole in our wall, collateral damage from destroying the nest. No biggie.

Who knows how bad the infestation would have gotten if it wasn’t for my cat warning us and showing us the problem? He was so smart and was always such a blessing in my life.

I lost him to renal kidney failure in summer 2017 when he was only 7 years old. I still miss him terribly, he was my best friend and my other half. There are many other things he’s done to show his intelligence and emotional awareness to me, and I know I will never again have a bond with another animal like I had with him.

I am happy knowing that I was blessed with such an incredible companion and a kind soul in my life, and I’m glad I had him for the years I did.

Rest In Peace, my little angel. My best friend in the whole world.