FragileWarrior wrote:
Jay wrote in
news:z2owh.836513$1T2.309219@pd7urf2no:
FragileWarrior wrote:
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.
I'm sorry to hear about your animals....I sometimes think, though,
that barn cats have the greatest lives of all domesticated cats these
days. All the rats they can eat, a wheelbarrow tour of the property
every morning and night, in our case, an egg in the afternoon. Then
they pretty much get to do what they want the rest of the day and have
lots of space to do it in.
It's great too that you take in the strays. They're my favorites
because they're never so people oriented that you wonder how they got
born cats by mistake : )
I inherited the mom and son from an elderly neighbor who was trying to
move them away from weaving in and out of her ankles everytime she went
outside. I was feeding them in her barn but they tracked me back to the
food source and ended up living in my barn for the last year. Just
before the cat-son died, he brought home a pair of kittens that looked
just like him. One left but one is still here so the cycle goes on.
That's pretty neat. All my animals are spayed/neutered so I wont get to
see any of their progeny but so it goes.
By the way, am I correct in recognizing you from rec.eq?
Yep, until I couldn't stand the req anymore. I decided I had learned
from books so far and could continue to do so without the snarks.
Cripes, some of them don't even take a breath between shrieks of outrage.
Heh. True enough. Reminds me of the horse communities in real life.
It's the reason I lurk on the NG and the same reason I stick to riding
the trails in the real world : )
I've been mostly lurking there for a few years but your name seems
familiar. From your other posts, I gather you have drafts and minis?
I've got an aging trakehner hothead named Bogart.
Pictured he http://www.flickr.com/photos/skcup/148575154/
Handsome boy! Looks like a youngster.
Yup. He's not bad considering he's going on 25 or so this year. He was
in the round pen for the first time 2 weeks ago after coming off an
injury (stifle) and getting the Very Limited Work treatment. He was
bucking and farting and doing crazy spins like a lunatic and the seven
year old who was watching said "What's the matter with that horse?" Dad
said "Oh he's just too young to have been trained yet." Go figure. I
get the one who STILL wears his crazy pants on the outside. Most of the
time he's a keeper, though.
My boys (and new mini girl) are
in the HORSES folder over at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/deerhnd
They're beautiful. I love the picture of D'argo scratching against the
tree. Prime.
-Jay