Thursday, June 15, 2006

End Date

A cat is said to have nine lives because it is "more tenacious of life than many animals". Nine, a trinity of trinities, is a mystical number often invoked in religion and folklore. The cat was once revered in Egypt, and this is probably where its nine lives began. As cats seem able to escape injury time and time again, this mystical number seemed suited to the cat. Cats are intrepid explorers and fearless acrobats. After all, a creature with nine lives can afford to take risks.


With all the physical aspects of a cat's life it may have nine lives, but a cat cannot escape the tragedy of diseases characterized by uncontrolled cell division and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues. In other words cancer.


This is leading to a tough situation yesterday where my girlfriend Iris, the most compassionate and heart warming person that I've ever met, had to tell her cat of 10 years goodbye. It was very tough for her and it was tough to see her in that state. The cat, whose name was Sophie, was euthanized yesterday around 2:30PM. They tried to put the cat to sleep in front of us! They couldn't do the procedure easily so they took her away and we said our goodbyes.


So what does a person do in the situation? You cry, you hurt, you get mad and you question. ARGH! I thought about it when I got home yesterday and pondered why we go through such pain. Today we move on and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing. We do take it for granted and we know it, we ignore the simple fact that we are alive. Enjoy your day of talking and smelling and being selfish. We are all selfish.


2006 Suspiration