Your kind comments on my previous post meant a lot. I didn't reply to them, but wanted you to know that they really touched my heart.
In the safe, but unrealistic realms of my fanciful expectations I had wanted Scruffy to be miraculously cured by the vet and come home perfectly healthy.
The grim reality, however, is that Scruffy was never perfectly healthy. She had been very sick as a kitten and was plagued with poor health ever since. She always had respiratory problems and the vet said she was extremely congested. Her survival chances were slim.
On Monday I have to drive to town again to pick up the carrying cage I brought her in. I'll also be getting a partial refund for the vet fee. And I paid for her cremation. They offered to return her body to me so I could bury her - but there is absolutely no way I could do that. It would have upset me beyond endurance.
So here I am on a cold, dreary, damp Saturday afternoon. All the foliage has turned vivid colors almost overnight and it is feeling very much like Halloween. I'm drinking a mug of hot tea. Now that the weather is chilly I drink tea or coffee frequently. Scratch and Bosco are sound asleep on my bed - - immersed in feline dreams and snoring in synchronization.
I'm in a profoundly melancholic mood.
I wish I could reach out, embrace glorious October, and hold it forever.
But nothing is forever.
