Jay wrote in news:rVcwh.833496$1T2.684840@pd7urf2no:

Carl 1 Lucky Texan wrote:
Somewhat off topic I know, still????


Funny you should ask...

Last weekend I went to my lower mulch-making pile for the first time
this season. I was clearing out overgrown blackberry vines and a bunch
of other stuff.

My very old and sick cat went missing in October. She was 16 when we
she went missing and had been very ill. As an outdoor cat, I guess
she'd
done the cat thing and snuck off to find a secluded place to die.
Since
the house is pretty much a zoo, I'm not surprised she did it outside.

When she went missing we put up fliers and searched and searched, but I
knew it was pretty fruitless from the start given that a)she was old,
b)
she was ill and c)she was just that kind of cat. However, I admit that
the not knowing what had happened to her was eating me up. How do you
decide when to stop looking?

When I found her, there was not much left but a bunch of fur and bones.
(It's been 5 months, after all). She'd crawled in between the wood of
the deck and I'd never have found her if I hadn't been standing eye
level to the deck and at about sunset when there's enough westerly
light
to see inside.

I moved Windy's remains and planted her under a brand new Pieris
Japonica. I held my own personal service for her and told her what a
good kitty she'd been and how much I'd missed her. I had a flat out and
very manly cry in the middle of the back yard and buried the cat I got
when I was 11.

I guess that's not specifically 'digging something up' in the garden,
but it was certainly the most meaningful lost thing I've ever found
while gardening.

I'm new here and this is my first post, so hello to all and don't judge
me for telling the dead cat story on my first day!

-Jay

Ah, you told that story wonderfully. You need to post more.

Toward the end of last year I lost two old barn cats (Mother and son) and
an old Yorkie that came to me as a stray, too. They're buried out beside
the barn. I'm trying to decide what to plant over them this year so that
they will remain undisturbed.