THE LETTER L ~ LOVE and LOSS
We love our pets, knowing when they arrive to become part of our homes and our hearts that our time together will never be long enough. And when the time of parting comes, we remember them in many and differing ways. Over fifteen years ago, for our pet community, I began designing Memory Images to share of the pets loved and lost. These are not easy to do. Often I know the pet parent through our mutual blogging and know their pet well, and there are times when neither are known to me. Yet all touch my heart and creating images is an honor but equally a process that hurts, for I feel and share the sadness.
But what of the pet who loses the parent? The gentle hands that have held and caressed it for so long. The consistent feeder, the mender of wounds. The responder to needs. The one who tossed the ball. The one who held that feather wand high in the air. The one who walked by his side come rain or cold. The one who she may have shared a bed with each night. The one trusted and loved. Unconditionally.
There is great controversy among animal behaviorists about anthropomorphism, and yet I think many of us who live with pets do tend to give them human-like characteristics ~ sometimes we just cannot help ourselves. We see it in their eyes, hear it in their animal-speak and how they interact with us. It seems so natural.
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Once upon a time in Florida there lived a little Himalayan cat named Zoey, she had a rather odd little snaggle tooth, it went up not down, and she was pretty much the "star of Zoolatry" for a long time. No question she was a Daddy's Girl, following him everywhere, all the time. He had a home office, she'd be seen in his in-box everyday as he worked at his desk, sleep at his side every night. Zo was about two-years old when Daddy first got sick, and for the next four years she was his good nurse, giving all she could. One night, in the fall of 2012, Daddy suddenly left home and she slept alone that night because the Mommy went with him. He didn't come home.
She waited. She slept where he slept. She sat in the in-box each day, waiting. People she did not know came and went from the house and Maggy, the other Himalayan just seemed not to be bothered by it all. Zoey knew something big had happened, had changed, but she did not understand at all. All she knew was that she missed her Daddy, very much. She still sat in the in-box every day. Her Mommy was very quiet much of the time, but Zoey really wasn't interested in her Mommy. She wasn't sure about time, time doesn't mean much except for meals, but a day came when strange people came and took a lot of furniture out of the house. Again, she did not understand. Daddy still hadn't come home. And all of the furniture now from his office was being taken away, even her in-box.
Mommy knew some months had passed, it was spring of 2013, she knew that this home would soon be sold and she would move away, though Zoey and even Maggy did not know this. There would be no need for an office now. Zoey did not know this. Months had passed, and yes, Mommy was still sad and hurting. But, yes, Zoey was grieving. Zoey now spent days, in that empty office. No in-box. Love and loss.
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