Please allow me to take a brief respite from our usual chipper travelogue to reflect for a brief moment on an event that occurred twelve months ago. For even as Niki and I cut back, kick back, sleep late, and do a whole lot of nothing but just enjoy some time in Antigua, my mind and heart can’t help but take me back to last March. It was on this day, one year ago, that I lost my beloved cat Scully to cancer.

Perhaps many of the pet lovers reading this can relate. Some folks might say “she’s just a cat”, but to me the 16 years Scully and I had together encompassed many of the very best times of my life. She was right there with me through some rather low periods as well, and even after all this time there’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about her and miss her. I’m thankful that more and more I have learned to look beyond the pain of her passing and my loss and instead focus on all the good times we shared, both on land and at sea. They were many, and I was very blessed.

But I still miss my sweet little friend…and no doubt always will.

So here’s to Scully, the best of the best, the greatest of the greats. Rest in peace, Madame Commander.