Page 37 - Contrast2004

up and closed my throat. that1was a realjerk to her,but I supposethat's what

Then we left the room and cried out we allneed in life.A coupleofjerks aroundto make

front. 1 looked at these fiber cat treats and real- lightof our suffering.Even Jesushad the disciples,
likeDoubtingThomas,right?
ized that we didn't have anyone to buy them
So we got home and they couldn't figure
for anymore.
The lady that had said 'he or she' brought out where to bury her. There was a boxed off
part down the hill where we never quite got the
the cat out wrapped up in a bleach-stained
garden started, so my mother suggested down
brown towel. She glanced around at our teary
faces and her voice jumped an octave. "I hope there, but my father disagreed. Then my mother
that was alright," She said Double had peed on said next to the pool, but my father disagreed.
the other one and she thought that we wouldn't Then they both agreed on interring the beloved
kitty at the top of the grass-covered
want to ride home with the wet. 1
hill.
felt a twinge of renewed sadness Did I mention that it was rain-

because she had been such an ing? And did I happen to mention that

arrogant, dignified cat. We al- my mother and I were both wearing
ways joked that she must have a slide on shoes? Well,my father got up

secret life starring as the cat in what we all first, almost effortlessly. A nice soft
the Whiskas commercials - need in life. A earth day, he said as he began to dig.
"Good taste is easy to recognize," Then my mother and I struggled up

or something like that .. , My couple of jerks together. She lost first one shoe arid
mother took her. then the other, but I handed them back
around to make to her each time. When we got up
She said that she still felt

alive underneath and my mother light of our there, my father had already started
and 1thought that we heard a suffering. " digging. He was next to a small tree.
meow. Then once we were back I asked why the cat couldn't be buried

in the car my mother said that it in the towel and my father answered

felt like the cat moved a little. back so plainly, innocently, and lovingly. "She
My father was funny. "That's some Pet Ceme- has to go back to the earth," He dug it a little
illy mess if that cat is still moving now," We deeper and then placed her down into it.

all laughed a little. "We're putting her one foot under," my mother

Then he said, "We have to make this a said. My father tucked her paw under at my
quick burial." My sister had some doctor's ap- mother's request. Then he covered it back over

pointments. My father said his goodbyes on the with his hands. "That goes on last," He said to
way home to the cat in the towel.
A friend of mine had to have her cat put himself as he arranged the grass on top just
right, finishing it off.
to sleep a few months ago and 1realize now

The Awakening 35