The Hollow Outline: A Farewell to Athena- and a Second Chanc

Meet Athena

Athena was here. Athena was loved. Athena is gone.

There is a moment, in the days after, when you forget and then remember again. You move to fill the water dish. You hear a sound at the edge of sleep and think, for just a second, that she is still there.

This is how absence works, like a pulse you no longer register until something makes you press two fingers to your wrist, searching.

Athena was my heart. My husband would set his alarm fifteen minutes early just to pet her. One day, she booped my nose with hers, and I fell in love.

People will tell you it was only a cat, as if that makes the shape of the absence any smaller. But we who have loved and lost know that the measure of grief is not in scale but in depth. She was ours. She belonged to us, and we to her, in that wordless contract between species, a quiet understanding that we were each other’s witnesses. She observed the rhythms of our lives—the making of coffee, the shuffle of footsteps in the dark. She watched and waited, and now there is no one left to do the watching.

This is what love does, in the end. It leaves us with the hollow outlines, the negative spaces. The fur still clinging to the favorite chair, the indentation on the cushion, the echoes of a life lived alongside ours.

We will say her name in the quiet.

We will expect, for a time, to see her where she no longer is.

And then, one day, we will not.

But what if we could give others a second chance?

Help Us Rescue the Ones Who Are Still Waiting

Right now, there are animals in London—abandoned, hungry, waiting for someone to come back who never will. SCAAR is their only hope. They step in when no one else does, rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming animals that the world has forgotten.

Last year, fundraisers like this helped SCAAR rescue and re-home 2500 animals. Let’s make that number even higher.

Right now, SCAAR is saving animals who need emergency medical care and shelter—every dollar donated today makes an immediate impact.

This fundraiser is for them. And it’s for Athena. And for yours.

If you’ve ever loved and lost, if you’ve ever felt the weight of an absence that words can’t fill—help us fill another bowl.

Join Us for Bingo in Black at Anderson Craft Ales

Date: February 28, 2025, 7:30 PM

Location: Anderson Craft Ales, Old East Village

Theme: Rock & Roll Bingo

$5 per bingo card (2-card max per round) – Every dollar goes directly to SCAAR

Cash Only Event | Silent Auction | Prizes | Dancing | Community

If you can’t give, please share this—because the more people who see this, the more animals we can save.

For Athena. For Yours. For the Ones Still Waiting.

#ForAthena #TheyWereLeftBehind #SecondChance #RescueAnimals #BingoInBlack #SCAAR #AdoptDontShop