Ave atque vale

Hail and farewell…

Earlier today, the 19th, we had to put down another one of our cats.  This is never a painless thing, and we have had quite a bit of problems emotionally because of it.

Shadow Rex Bouchard was eighteen years old, and lived with us for ten years.  When he found us, he had been on the street for two winters.  (We think he belonged to a senior citizen at one of the complexes at the end of our street, and when the senior died, he was cut loose.)  Once we took him in, he never showed any inclination to leave the house again.  He did look out any open screen door, but that was just mild curiosity, I think.

He would cry if one of us left the house for any length of time, and be right at the door when we came back.  He was a cuddler.  He always ate more than his share of cat food, possibly a hangover from when he was on the street.

We miss him already.

At the beginning of this year, we had four cats (having taken my mother’s cat when my mother died)… now we’re down to one.  This is not promising, I’d say, but we’re old enough that replacing any of them is not on the program.  We have no one to take care of a cat if something happens to us.

It’s hard.

Later.