A Playlist for Pumpkin & Zephyr

Recently, we lost our beloved cat Pumpkin to an unexpected illness. Although, it was very difficult we got an opportunity to hospice her to the very end and spend some time saying goodbye to a really great cat taken from us way too soon. This comes on the heels of losing our dog Zephyr over the summer. While his death was long expected due to his advanced age, nothing ever prepares you for the gut punch of losing a great dog. We've experienced two pets we loved very much in the same year once before back in 2009. That Christmas was very difficult for us, we spent a lot of time crying while opening presents, mainly pictures of our two cats - Cicero and Omelette. Those two went missing with fates that remained uncertain, but based on living in the deep woods, our worst fears could only be confirmed. If you are an animal lover, that's a shock you don't easily recover|

The deaths of Pumpkin and Zephyr weren't that traumatizing, just sad. I miss them both...terribly. And yes, Christmas is going to be a little melancholic this year, but 2017 has been much more elegiac and solemn that 2009. I am older, more experience with death, and watch the circle of life play out through my back window that peers toward the feral cat colony that is my town every single day. I've buried enough cute kittens to last most folks a life time just this fall. It sucks, but that's just the way it is and you can't change it. You MUST accept it.

On the bright side...we have nurtured a litter of healthy kittens into adulthood and we're working on a second, even getting two of them adopted - one intentional, the other an unintentional by-product of taming feral kittens. We are also capturing as many ferals as we can and fixing them at our amazing local vet hospital. One of the huge upsides of living in the country is having a great local doctor and cat rescues in other cities willing to pick up the tab on spays and neuters for responsible citizens stupid enough to try to trap a feral cat. We're doing our part to combat the feral problem and cut down on the rampant death. It's still, mostly, a losing battle but one we are willing to fight. We nursed our other cat Sweetpea through a wicked cold brought on by the depression of losing her two besties this year and adopted little Bindi boy, a feisty little feral male with ticked fur and a pointy Abyssinian face. He was the sneezy, weezy runt of the litter with bad eyes and an even worse instinct about cars. Now he's an spazzy, mostly indoor kitten who is super aggressive and the scourge of the outdoor ferals, who are all terrified of him. We love him very much and we've noticed that Sweetpea has some pep in her step again, even if it's just to repeatedly swat Bindi in the face, reminding him of who is in charge around this place and to give her the space she desires.

As with all things in life, this year has been a mixed bag. In honor of the bitter and the sweet this year, I compiled a little video playlist of songs. The interesting fact here is that these were all songs in my iTunes library that I had playing on random on the last weekend of Pumpkin's life in the exact sequence they played originally. It was as if the cosmos knew what was going on and supplied a little soundtrack for the moment. But even if life is the random sequence of elements I think it is, it was still a powerful moment and one worth sharing.