Where Nino Left His Mark

A fictional remembrance story set in Switzerland.

In her home beside Lake Lugano, Sofia kept a blue ceramic pot with one small flaw: a crooked paw print pressed into its side.

Her cat, Nino, had made it as a kitten, stepping onto the soft clay while she turned away to answer the telephone.

She almost smoothed it out.

Instead, she kept it.

Over the next fifteen years, Nino became her unofficial studio assistant. He slept beneath her worktable, stole the sponge she used for shaping bowls and occasionally left a white whisker among her brushes.

Sofia’s pottery changed. Her little companion’s habits never did.

After Nino died, she stopped using the studio. His cushion was still beneath the table, and she could not bring herself to move it.

Weeks later, her granddaughter picked up the blue pot.

“Nonna, this is the one he helped you make.”

For the first time in weeks, Sofia laughed.

She bought a FurLunea Personalised Granite Pet Memorial for Nino and placed it in her private courtyard beside the blue pot.

The inscription read:

Nino
You left your mark on everything.

Now, when Sofia opens the studio doors, she sees his name among the flowers.

She still misses him beneath her worktable. But she has started making pottery again.

And whenever her thumb finds that little paw print, she is grateful she never smoothed it away.