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A Good Run
Well.... Damn. My cat's dead.
I'm not really a cat person: I like medium to large-sized dogs that you can play frisbee with or hike with or wrestle with... but this little yellow longhair tabby has been part of the family for 18 years and when I came home and found her lying there all still I got a lump in my throat.
Damn, she could be annoying as hell. But she liked to sit next to me while I was working at my desk, and she greeted me every morning (and sometimes in the night for no good reason) with that meow that sounded increasingly like a rusty hinge these last few years. She was a good mouser, and she liked my kids. She was the queen of the house, a grumpy old lady who liked sleeping in the sunbeams and grew increasingly brazen the last few years -- standing on the table top while we were clearing it off after dinner, for instance. Maybe we all get more stubborn and determined when we're older.
I'm going to miss little Camilla. Hell, she's been our cat since before we were married, back when we had a dive apartment and a sequence of crummy first jobs. Even though mostly she's been sleeping for the last three years, in retrospect it was nice knowing she was somewhere around. The house will seem a lot more lonely without her.
Now I've got to tell the kids, and pick out a nice spot in the yard to bury her. Near a tree, maybe, where the sunbeams will fall in the afternoon.
Howard
I'm not really a cat person: I like medium to large-sized dogs that you can play frisbee with or hike with or wrestle with... but this little yellow longhair tabby has been part of the family for 18 years and when I came home and found her lying there all still I got a lump in my throat.
Damn, she could be annoying as hell. But she liked to sit next to me while I was working at my desk, and she greeted me every morning (and sometimes in the night for no good reason) with that meow that sounded increasingly like a rusty hinge these last few years. She was a good mouser, and she liked my kids. She was the queen of the house, a grumpy old lady who liked sleeping in the sunbeams and grew increasingly brazen the last few years -- standing on the table top while we were clearing it off after dinner, for instance. Maybe we all get more stubborn and determined when we're older.
I'm going to miss little Camilla. Hell, she's been our cat since before we were married, back when we had a dive apartment and a sequence of crummy first jobs. Even though mostly she's been sleeping for the last three years, in retrospect it was nice knowing she was somewhere around. The house will seem a lot more lonely without her.
Now I've got to tell the kids, and pick out a nice spot in the yard to bury her. Near a tree, maybe, where the sunbeams will fall in the afternoon.
Howard
A Good Mouser
18 years of a happy life in sunshine and table standing is an excellent run.
Many sympathies.
Love, C.
Re: A Good Mouser
It is really upsetting to lose a pet. Their unwavering devotion is not easily replaced. Hopefully the kids will be alright. Are you going to get another cat? My condolences.
Dave
(Anonymous)
--Daniel
(Anonymous)
Sorry Howard.
When she wouldn't take cream I knew she wasn't right.
But you had a friend in her for 18 years.
That's a fine and rare thing. A lucky thing.
And maybe the thing you should remember most as you mourn her.
Hocking
Telling the kids will probably be the hardest part of all; I hope that goes well. I remember with painful clarity how I had to explain to my son that his goldfish dead. "No, no!" he kept arguing with me. "He's just doing a funny trick!" (The funny trick: floating sideways on the top of the water.) That was a rough conversation. It must have been fifteen or sixteen years ago, but the memory still makes me wince...
I'm sorry to hear about the fish story -- that had to be agonizing. Here what I won't forget is seeing her there myself, and then my son's expression after he and my daughter asked to see the body.
Still, 18 years is a good long life for a cat, definitely a good run. I'm sure you made it a great one for her.
You describe her so well, I can almost see the look she would give you if you disturbed her while she was sunbathing...
May she rest in peace in the warmth of the sun... My thoughts are with you and your family.
(Anonymous)
--Chris W
Cats are a little stubborn when you try to teach them to "behave"... They have their own ideas as to what proper behaviour is... :-)
R