A photo from my photo album from a few years ago camping with Sophie.

After my cats, my strongest attachment is my car. I’m one of those ones who will buy a Toyota and drive it until it dies. Sophie was my second Toyota. She was a green Corolla. 

Sophie and I had many great memories together. She was the only car that all my cats rode in. Kitty, Kip, Jude, Simon, Jolene and Flower all rode in Sophie. We went to my favorite camping spot in the Adirondacks. We went surfing on Cape Cod.

My first Corolla was a base model. Sophie was the luxury model. She had a polished wood interior and plush, luxurious seats. Even with all the luxury, I was still able to fit a lot in Sophie for camping and for moving. Sophie was the nicest vehicle I have ever had in my life. 

Sophie got the cats and I to safety. She made the 3-hour drive north to get us all to the safe house and out of the house with the abusive neighbors. In fact, it was in that exodus that Sophie gave her life protecting me. (That will be a story for another post, but yes, we did escape the neighbors who repeatedly injured us, harassed us, and attempted arson while we were in the house this past summer). 

We also won’t talk about the deliberate damage Sophie incurred from the neighbors prior to her demise. 

It’s hard for me to lose Sophie so soon after losing Jude. I don’t want to talk about what happened. I want to remember all the good times I had with Sophie. She was still young and low mileage compared to my first Toyota. My first Toyota had 283,000 miles on it when it died. Sophie only had 175,000. 

Some of my best memories in life have been while driving. I remember summer 2015 when Sophie and I visited as many state parks as we could on our Empire Passport. She used to have a row of Empire Passport stickers in her window, back when they issued stickers before they went to the cards. 

For a sedan, Sophie was surprisingly spacious and was able to transport my short board for surfing. For my long board, I needed a vehicle with a roof rack, but Sophie could handle the short board for surfing the Great Lakes. 

We went to Boston and to various other cities in the northeast on marathon running trips. Sophie was my most reliable companion over the course of her entire life with me. So many things in life change, but Sophie was a constant for me for a long time. 

Sophie was the most dependable being in my life, aside from the cats. 

I knew it would happen eventually. No car lives forever. I was honestly hoping for another year or two. I wanted Sophie to make it to 20. She would have made it to 20, if it had not been for the neighbor situation. This year has been especially hard. In 2025, I lost my house (was bullied out of it), I lost Jude, and I lost Sophie. That’s 3. Bad luck comes in 3’s, so knock it off. 

I haven’t even had time to properly grieve Jude or Sophie with everything that is going on.

The good news is that, yes, we are out of the house with the horrible neighbors and are in a new, safe location. More on that later. It was in that transition that Sophie died protecting me. I owe that car my life. It never should have ended for her like it did. Sophie deserved better.

On the bright side, Sophie carried my most precious cargo to safety. She was able to get the cats out of that house with the evil neighbors. I need to hold onto the good memories we had. The camping trips, the surfing trips, the park trips. Sophie kept us safe. 

She was the best car ever. I love you and I miss you.