Thursday June 17 1999 we had to put our cat Arthur to sleep.
(Art your old can’t you see that your OLD?!?)
8 years ago when I was live in manager for a horse farm I met the live
in ‘mouser’ a white/tabby cat ‘Arthur’.
When I left the job Arthur stayed only to be reunited with him when I
moved back to that barn 3 years ago.
Upon moving away again my friend and I drew straws we
couldn’t leave him so I took him home.
Skinny dirty & old he did not object to the bath he got and loved the
couch. No more barn life. No more hot summers cold winters.
His only problem was litter training so we simply put him
out to ‘use the lawn’.
Wednesday night I put him out I always thought night time was safer no
traffic in our neighborhood. It had been raining and he was in all day.
I woke at 3am to the sound of dogs barking something VERY unusual in
our neighborhood. So i got up to find 2 dogs in our yard barking at the
cars… the cat under the car. I chased the dogs away and tried to coax
the cat(s) in but they didn’t budge the dogs and the rain…
I saw Arthur under the car the next morning when I left but didn’t
notice him looking odd.
My husband found him later that afternoon.. laying there wet in the yard…
I rushed home and we took him to the vet no external injuries but he
was not good… initial exame low blood cell count sub normal temp the
vet gave us the estimate to check him out more with no guarantee for his
life… the price my God was too high and guessing he was over 13
years old… I tried one last time to wake him but he didn’t respond.
So I stayed while the vet euthanized him. It was my duty… and we took
him out to our barn to bury him.
I miss you Arthur you old cat you. Please forgive me I didn’t know.
I love you so much for you were so ‘un-prissy’. A great quality for a cat.
I only hope I gave you a great last year in life with all the comforts
a creature could want.
Arthur you ARE missed you bed head.
Kaye & Adam Jacob & Zachary (the Barnes Family) &
Denise Brown (the other straw puller)
“Soon the Jellicle leader will apear,
and make what is known as the ‘Jellicle Choice’,
when old Deuteronomy just before dawn,
thru a silence you feel you can cut with a knife,
announces the cat who can now be reborn,
to a different Jellicle life,
for waiting up there is the Heavyside Layer
full of wonder one Jellicle only will see…
Moonlight turn your face to the moonlight
let your memory lead you open up enter in.
If you find there the meaning of what happiness is,
then a new life… will begin.
Up up up past the Russle Motel,
Up up up up to the Heavyside Layer,
Up up up past the Jellicle Moon,
Up up up up to the Heavyside Layer.
The mystical devinity of unashamed felinity
’round the cathedral rang! Vivat!
Life to the ever lasting cat.”
{Taken from T.S. Elliots book of Cats.}
| Authur |