Hello Kitty White, my favorite English pen pal...
I wish I was writing this message to you under happier circumstances.
You and I are both friends with Cathy March, a white rabbit like me and I have promised to keep in touch with her on your behalf ever since she moved to the Netherlands to become a classmate and neighbor of my friends and I.
I never forget how allergic she was to milk, how she loved to collect seashells, and how she loved to eat sushi lunches with lollipops, carrots, and your mother Mary's Kitty Cakes.
Those were some of the very few bright spots in her life.
I use past tense because I bear heartbreaking news...
At 6:54 PM Central European Standard Time on Friday the 13th of May, 2011; Cathy March had sadly taken her life to escape the abuse her father Harcourt "Hare" and Belinda "Bunny" March had been inflicting upon her.
Cathy had come over to visit Melanie and I at Melanie's house for a playdate after school.
Okay, more like Melanie and I brought Cathy over to stage an intervention for why she was not feeling well about things at home and not telling us.
I put one of my paws to her shoulder and quickly she flinched as though my touching her was striking her across her back.
When her parents came to pick her up, she hopped out in front of her dad's sedan which had been going a pretty big clip.
Too fast for him to slow down, Cathy didn't seem all that terrified of her dad's car – just sad and regretful that she felt like she couldn't tell any of us or say goodbye to you.
She was hit by the car and tumbled before laying sprawled across the street in front of our house.
Melanie called 112 for an ambulance to try and save her.
Sadly, the injuries she suffered in the impact were exacerbated by the abuse she had been receiving from her own mother and father.
Cathy died on the way to the hospital and Melanie along with her parents had to drag me back inside their house kicking and screaming.
I am still traumatized and heartbroken that our friend couldn't trust us enough with something so damaging and hurtful to have to endure.
That she was depressed and in so much suffering from her parents actually abusing their only child, from what I could sense is that no matter what she did to appease them, Mr. and Mrs. March hated Cathy and blamed her for how her birth had broken their own dreams and wanted her gone forever.
I don't know how much longer I may have for this world as the pain of losing a great friend like Cathy who Melanie and I loved like a sister is too much to bear.
I imagine such pain would be even greater for you since you were her friend before me and it was hard enough for you to say goodbye to her when she moved here.
But now to know how much pain she was hiding from both of us, I feel bad for not being able to do more to possibly save her.
And I hold no blame for you if you feel right now that I may be responsible in a way for the loss of your friend and shining light in our lives.
With great regret from your Dutch pen pal, Miffy Rabbit...