Tuesday, Day 26

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I’m sad. My sister had to have her long time companion feline Murphy put to sleep tonight.  Murphy was a special girl and had a wonderful, love-filled life with Lisa and she was a sweetie bug whenever we visited. She (according to her mother) liked watching football and listening to music.  And while I never watched football with her (I’m the changeling of my family and don’t enjoy sports), I can vouch for Murphy’s interest in music. It’s like Mouche and Bug Bear’s fascination with the television; wide eyed, erect-eared attention (although I never saw Murphy attack the CD player the way my kids go after the images on the television).

It’s never easy, losing a companion animal. Dave and I lost Haggis, our eight month old cat, and Boska, my 16 year old dog.  I shared custody of her with Brian and she was with him when it was her time to go.  Whether they’re too young to go or have reached the full span of their life cycle, it hurts those of us they leave behind, especially the first time you forget they’re gone and turn to greet them in their favorite spot…and they’re not there.  And never will be again.

It sucks.

But…no matter how painful it is to deal with the loss, it still can’t stand up against the sheer joy animals add to our lives.  I would not have missed a second of Haggis’s loving personality o matter how devastated I was when he died.

But it still hurts. I will miss Murphy almost as much as my own babies.  She was a very special girl and I’m proud to have been her aunt.

7 thoughts on “Tuesday, Day 26”

  1. My best friend as a very young boy (before my 3 brothers were born – I was 6 years older than the next born) was my dog named Ginger. She and I would play all day long. I was often her sheltered guest in the large doghouse my father built for her during rainstorms where we would console each other and exhort each other to be brave against the mighty winds and lightnings. She died when I was 8, of dissentery. Dad ran over her with his car to put her out of her misery (he didn’t own or believe in guns). I’ll never forget my first best friend, my Ginger – and I hope to reunite with her in the afterlife. It still hurts. I miss her so much.

  2. Oh, Marvin…I can only imagine how that must have hurt. And while I’m not sure what I believe in terms of afterlife, I KNOW our animals are part of it.

  3. So sorry about your sister’s loss and yours. It does hurt to loss someone close to you, even if that someone is a “pet.” Our dog is fourteen and a half, mostly blind and deaf, but still feisty, as the groomer will tell you. She can get up the stairs, but we have to carry her down. We’ve decided, though, that we’ll have to leave everything to her since she’ll most likely outlive us both.

  4. Thanks, Helen. It’s just been a bad year for losing pets. Our parents also finally had to say goodbye to their geriatric and feisty calico, Shalimar, who had to be 21 at least. It’s amazing how some animals just seem to go on forever and you do hear stories about the feisty ones.

  5. The hardest part of having pets is the knowing that we’ll probably outlive them. But you’re right, even knowing that, the having of their company outshines everything else. Ours is a little bobtail cat, sired by a huge bobtail who wandered through the countryside a couple years ago. He had to be part bobcat he was so big. We took her from her mother when she was only a few weeks old because of the danger the kittens were going feral. She plays rough, but is a sweetheart and knows our schedule as well as we do, in fact urges us to bed when it’s time, and for a walk when it’s time.
    My thoughts are with you and your sister for your loss.

  6. Thanks, Velda…I mean, it’s my sister’s loss here that’s the biggee right now. I know she misses my kids who have gone too, but it’s never the same as when it’s your pet. Except she actually adopted one of mine a while ago and this kitty is now her little darling, so when Sorscha leaves this mortal coil, we will both be devastated. I love the sound of your little bobtail!

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