Ever fall in love with an idea, well I have... Or friends
you haven't
met face to face, and yet you feel the loss when they
are taken
away suddenly by death.
I have done both in the past two months. Guess it was
my way of
coping with the loss of my good friend Teddy.
I met a very friendly 15-year-old feline named "Kitty
GreyCat" on
the world wide web, and we became fast friends. She lived
in
Seminole, Florida, with her buddy "Ebony BlackCat" and
her
human being in a 36-foot fifth wheel. She edited the
"Shaffer
Online Journals" for her science fiction, poetry writing,
Whiskas
buying human being named Larry Shaffer.
Unless you are an animal person, you will not understand
that
those of us who are in tune to their animals know what
the animal
is thinking most of the time, which is: "why are human
beings so
good at acting sooooo dumb!"
In the past two months I have looked forward to the daily
e-mails
on the trials and tribulations of a feline retiree's
life. The sharing of
accomodations, the awkardness of growing older, and learning
the
secrets of "power catnapping" from an expert.
I have been asked to use my influence in the pet industry,
to see if I
could get "mousy" and "lizard" flavored Whiskas put on
the
market for that discriminating feline who is looking
for an exotic
dinner.
I have learned to answer questions about why human beans
do the
things they do.
Ever try explaining to someone who doesn't speak English
why the
water glugs in a bottled water machine or where the water
in the
toilet goes when you pull the little handle? It is a
mind expanding
trip let me tell you.
The hardest thing I think I have ever had to explain was
to the
human being that belonged to Kitty GreyCat, and that
was why?
Why did he lose his best friend of 15 years.
Annual veterinarian visits and all the available vaccines
to keep a
kitty safe each year, and still she came down with Feline
Leukemia.
Now in these days of modern miracle drugs and medications,
that
should never happen, but in this case it did.
There is a point to this story, besides mourning a friend,
and that is
even the vaccines that the veterinarian gives cannot
always be
effective; so how do the people who give their own, after
buying
them through mail order or the local feed store, expect
to have
proper protection for their pets?