#gnu pip

[petermorwood]

Friends, family, never just pets.

What’s said when a beloved cat dies? I can understand a lack of sympathy when the speaker doesn’t like – or actively dislikes – cats, but it often surprises me how thoughtless and unfeeling some people’s notion of “comfort” can be.

“I can’t understand what all the fuss is about.”

“You knew they don’t live as long as us.”

“You’ll get over it.”

“You’ll get another one soon.”

“It was only a cat...”

*****

KASHA

November 1988 - 26 April 2000. Cancer / vet sleep.

LILITH

April 1989 - 7 April 2002. Heart attack.

BUBBLE

July 2002 - 23 April, 2005. Road accident.

PIP

June 2005 -13 February, 2007. Road accident.

BEEMER

May 2002 - 13 June, 2009. Road accident.

SQUEAK

August 1994 - 28 April 2011. Kidney failure / vet sleep.

GOODMAN

May 1997 - 8 May 2013. Kidney failure / vet sleep.

We remember them.

[petermorwood]

From J. Michael Straczynski's Twitter...

Funny thing, I thought - what with Krypto and all that - Supie was a dog person. Learn something new... :->

*****

We don't have the moon, but the hawthorn tree at the bottom of the garden where our cats are resting can bloom pretty bright in season.

@dduane and I both miss them, but we wouldn't have missed having them, not for the moon, not for the world.

And I really must vacuum my office. It's been less than a week since the last time, but it seems to be dusty in here...

[petermorwood]

I hope this is not an unpleasant question to answer/be reminded of, but - you talk regularly about how much you miss your cats; why don't you have one now?

Not to worry, it’s not an unpleasant reminder. Missing our past cats is memory, not grief (and hopefully not some sort of annoying whinge).

Look at it more as GNU insert cat’s name here. :-)

We haven’t got any more cats yet for the same reason as we lost Bubble, Pip and Beemer - the road right outside the house is far busier and faster than it used to be.

It has a corner HERE where cars have to slow down, then 300 yd / m of straight where they accelerate even though there’s another corner THERE where they have to slow down again, and our house is between the two corners so the cars are moving at best speed as they pass its gate.

The senior cats Kasha, Lilith, Goodman and Squeak all learned to stay away from it while the traffic level was low and slow, but the younger cats didn’t have that easy learning curveand all three were hit within 20 feet of the gate.

The obvious thing would be to get new cats and keep them indoors, which would probably be the case when we move from rural to urban living, but at the same time cats cooped-up in the middle of the countryside seems wrong.

We’ve also thought of putting down one of those “invisible fence-wires” that operates through a sensor on the collar, but a neighbour has one for their dog and Ozzie’s sensor is as big as the average cat’s head. Maybe there are smaller cat-sized ones; we haven’t checked yet.

Doubtless we’ll work something out, but the memories are safe from harm.