The Circle of Life

When pets come into our lives, we know that they won't be with us forever. Even more so than people, they leave us all too soon. We lost a cat named Mr. Peepers almost four years ago, shortly after we were married. I'll spare you the gruesome details, but at the time the evidence pointed to it being a malicious act, rather than the work of an animal. It quite simply broke my heart.

After a year of being petless - we welcomed Pauli Girl into our lives - an older miniature cocker spaniel we adopted from the pound. Due to an injury, she is completely blind in one eye, and has a cataract on the other. But as long as you keep her from running into the occasional curb when walking at night, there is zero impact on her quality of life. It's GOOD to be an animal in our household, mostly because of my husband. There are weeks when my animals get more cuddles than I do, and I am quite vocal in expressing my displeasure.

This past Thanksgiving, we adopted a kitten named Cutter, who quickly morphed into a ginormous cat that we have lovingly nicknamed "Jabba, the Cat". Seriously, this cat looks like a wombat. No, it looks like he ATE a wombat. Shortly after Cutter arrived, a stray cat in the neighborhood began hanging around. The two cats would sit on opposite sides of the screen door for hours, just staring at one another and occasionally touching paws. And each morning and evening when I would walk Pauli Girl, the cat would walk with us around the block. It was so bizarre.

He became a part of life in our household and we named him Cat King Cole. He was a hunter and began sharing his skill with us. On several occasions, I'd be presented with a bird, or a mouse, of which he was clearly so very proud. Ick. I know it's the circle of life, but seriously, it's gross. I'm not sure it was payback, but there was one bluejay that would repeatedly dive bomb this cat during our morning walks, squawking and chattering as though delivering a lecture all the while.

We considered bringing him inside, but two things stopped us. First, we've learned the hard way that cats that were once "outdoor" cats do NOT take kindly to becoming indoor cats. An incident where Mr. Peepers expressed his displeasure at being cooped up by peeing on my air purifier WHILE IT WAS IN USE springs to mind. Secondly, my old, nearly blind dog was and continues to be ever so unimpressed by the presence of an energetic young cat. It didn't seem fair to add insult to injury.

So, we settled on keeping him well fed (cold milk and salmon were his favorite treats), started flea treatments, and put a collar on him. But unfortunately, his life was cut short. Some time early Thursday morning, Cat King Cole was killed. While I am again heartbroken, there is one small silver lining. His death was eerily similar to the late great Mr. Peepers, so we were obviously very concerned. But based on what we have learned from the police department and animal control, in spite of the fact that the injuries look very deliberate and "clean", it is, in their opinion, the work of a coyote, and there have been a lot of similar incidents in our area recently. I get some small measure of solace that Mr. Peepers and Cat King Cole were killed at the hand of nature as opposed to there being some horribly cruel person out there.

When we go out for our morning walk, I still look for him for a split second before I remember and it makes me so sad. The circle of life continues.