JUST A LITTLE BIT OF GRIEF

For no discernible reason, my little cat, Tibby, went into seizures yesterday. It was awful. The poor cat has had a hell of a summer, back and forth to two different vets several time, but they just couldn't fix him. We brought him to the vet again last night but there was nothing they could really do. He was in so much pain he couldn't really move, in between the seizures.

So, I had to make the difficult call to have him put to sleep. It was pretty awful.

I grew up in a farming area back in RI, and we had many cats come and go. My family was grimly pragmatic about it: Pets were pets, not people, and you move on when they get run over or eaten by something bigger. So, I feel really foolish admitting that I am rather sad right now.

But Tibby was a great cat, really sweet and loving. I didn't want a cat, but then one day, there I was, asked to cat-sit for him by my Irish pastor when an old lady in our parish had a stroke. When the lady died, I ended up having to keep the cat, who took about one year to trust me, before moving into complete unadulterated adulation. He used to follow me around room to room just staring at me. He was certainly odd, didn't know how to do normal cat things like chase toys and meow, but he was absolutely gentle and eager to please. It's kind of weird that he didn't die while I was off in Spain. My roommate said, "It's like he waited for you to come back." Who knows what animals know?

He was a good companion in my early years out here in L.A. before I had a lot of friends. I'm going to miss him.