Lost a friend this week
Offline Cerino died on Sunday.
We'd known each other for a little over 8 years.
True, we didn't hang out all that much for the past couple of years, but we always seemed to run in to each other every other day or so.
I buried him in the backyard on Monday evening.
We first met him when I move the wife and kids to Texas from Virginia back in 2004.
My wife was 7 months pregnant with our youngest who turned 8 last month. Ugliest cat you ever saw. Orange tabby, shed like a fiend, had really long fangs like a sabertooth. When you relented and would pet him he'd proceed to drool all over you until you recoiled in disgust.
When we first met him I was already working all day in a new job. The wife was sitting at our new place before we even had all of our stuff moved out here yet. So she was stuck in an empty house with a 1 year old and a big belly with nothing to do. So she'd sit around the garage and pet this dumb, starving cat all day.
I told her, no cats. So she called the pound asking if they would take them, but to let her know before they went so far to euthanize him. They refused. Moreso they tried to get her to bring him in so they could go ahead and kill the bugger. Told her that his quality of life was shit.
So I agreed with the wife we couldn't let them do that. We fed him, and tried to brush his hair out so he wouldn't shed all over us, and tried to not notice how freaking ugly this dumb cat was.
I thought he looked pretty old back in 2004. I would have guessed he was at least 8 or 9 back then.
So he became our outside cat. And we kept feeding the mangy thing for all these years.
The last time I talked to him was last week when I went to feed him and a new outside cat that just started showing up last year. The new cat tried to hog the bowl of cat food so I pushed him gently away from the food so Cerino could eat first. Let old Cerino have some food. He has senority.
I last saw him alive Saturday night, sitting in the driveway. Looking just as ugly as ever. Sunday afternoon I was opening a window to air out the house in the pleasant weather and there he was. Stretched out in front of the bedroom window. I could tell instantly by his pose that he was gone.
I wrapped him up in an old, little blanket and put him in the shed out back. Told the wife and she cried in my arms for a while. The next afternoon we told the kids and I found the shovel. Dug out a deep little hole after dark, the kids gathered a few little presents to bury him with. I walked across the dark backyard, went into the shed, picked him up, in my arms. And I would swear everything, it felt like that dead cat was purring like a motorboat. It startled me so much I almost dropped him. I uncovered his face, stared into his lifeless eyes, and assured myself he really was dead.
But it felt like he was purring loudly against my chest as I carried him out of that shed.
Bye Cerino. It was good knowing you, buddy.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
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It always sucks losing someone. But the upside is that you had the time with them.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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Sorry to hear about that Watcher.
I still think about my boyhood friend Quinn, an Alaskan Malamute.
I was closer to that dog that anyone else in childhood.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
It is amazing how those little critters work their way into your heart. Sorry to hear about your loss.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Sucks man, my sympathies.
I lost a buddy too a few months ago. Jake was 19, and the smartest cat I've ever known. But at 19 he had quite a few health problems, so his death was probably for the best. After 19 years together I could write a novel about him and all the shit he got himself into. Never complained, except for food lol, and even when in pain he'd try to jump up in your lap and cuddle. I'll miss him.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I lost my German Shepard last year. Smartest dog I ever knew. She died of cancer.
When they came to our house to put her down I held her and talked in to her ear and let her smell my hand.
I cried like a four year old for an hour.
Sorry for your loss.
Very touching. We don't own cats, they own us.
I buried my favorite cat away from the host of other cats and chickens my wife had acquired over the years who died. When I go by his spot I call out his name like I did when when he was alive. In a high pitch voice "Peeeeeee-Weeeee, little buuuuudd-eeeeee". When he was alive his tail would shoot straight up and he would come over and I would pick him up like a baby and kiss him on his head. He would be purring loudly and drooling all over me in big drops. He would press his face against my chin over and over. It felt just right. Great cat. Such sweet sorrow.
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
I do something very similiar when I think of my old dog Quinn and the expressions that used to come onto his face.
As a kid, when I would see him, in an exaggeratedly deep voice, I would go "Woof, Woof, Woof."
When I think of him, I hear that in my head.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
here's to all the folks who've lost companions, animal and human, over the years...
Sorry for the loss of your companion Watcher. I grew up with dogs ( and love all animals ) but since '91 when I took in a stray mother and her babies I have very much become a cat person. Emotionally, the loss of any of my animals always hits me very hard.
My condolences.
Hi Watcher,
Perhaps you also think about your mortatlity and the reality behind what Christians have been teling you also.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
A Rational Christian of Intelligence (rare)with a valid and sound justification for my epistemology and a logical refutation for those with logical fallacies and false worldviews upon their normative of thinking in retrospect to objective normative(s). This is only understood via the imago dei in which we all are.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
I knew this fool'd be back. He's addicted to getting his ass kicked.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
And delusional enough to think he's the one doing the ass kicking. A legend in his own mind.
"Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings."