Bye, kitty

We buried our cat today. She was the last of the family's pets; now that the kids are out and either in college or out in the world, we decided not to get another cat when our first one passed away a few years ago - we were just going to let this one go when she went, and that would be it for a while.

A week ago last Thursday, she climbed out of her cat bed, lay down on the floor, and just went. There was really no indication she was sick or that close to the end. I patted her head, told her goodbye, and wrapped her up in her favorite blanket, and we put her in the freezer (I know, but we wanted everyone to come home to say goodbye - and this is an unused freezer, still running from when the kids were little and we needed lots of food in the place).

Today, I spent half the afternoon digging a hole - yes, it took 2 hours, because of the heat and because, where I live, you get down 4 inches and it's hard slate-like rock. I have a tamping bar with a sharp end on it, and I was just banging away at the rock. I finally got the hole deep enough, and, when everyone was home, we said good-bye.

We talked about how nuts the cat was - and she was that. She had to be where the people were, and would spend most of her time on or near someone. She had to have someone stand near her when eating, and would often cry for someone to walk over to watch her eat. If you made a move anywhere toward her bowl, she would be underfoot the whole way to make sure she got a few seconds of a person nearby while she ate a little food.

She would also get into weird moods and just sit in one place for days - only leaving that one place for food and other necessities. Often, these places were very strange - like one small shelf on the stairs leading down to the basement that barely fit her. She would not budge for a month, and then something would make her stop and come join everyone else. All cats are nuts in one way or another - ours got something extra when God was handing out the feline nuttiness.

After talking about her for a while, I did the deed - covered her box up with dirt, and laid a sturdy board over the top partway through - then more dirt and rocks. We have to worry about dogs in this area, and they do dig up everything. My secret weapon in this case was her coffin - a used ammo can, well-perforated so nature could take its course (and the next owners of the house would not get a weird and unpleasant surprise if they ever came across it). No dog is going to be able to do anything to our kitty.

We turned around to go in, since we came out just after a thunderstorm, and it was threatening to start up again, and there before us was a complete rainbow - laid out across the sky. Someone mentioned that there's a story going around the Intarw3bz about rainbows and how they are bridges to heaven for pets. Kinda corny, but it was nice to see a symbol of hope just at that moment, just as we were feeling lost without our insane little friend who had been a part of the family for 12 years. That's when a couple of them broke down - and we just stood there, in the gathering rain, saying goodbye, each in our own ways.

After a few minutes, it really was time to go in, and everyone started walking. I had a few things to gather up, and I cleaned up the spot a little, picked up the tools, and headed over to the garage to put them away. Everyone else was in already, and, as I looked up in the sky, the rainbow had gone. She just made it - last bridge to heaven for a little while. The rain was a good excuse for wiping my eyes as I walked back inside to my slightly smaller, somewhat quieter family.