On Monday the 25th of April, 2011, Inu-chan, my beloved tiny, Japanese tiger died. My muse, mentor and monster, she began her life with me in her birthplace of Yamagata, Japan. She moved with me to Vancouver, Canada and a few years later to Benalmadena,Spain. She died at home in Singapore having seen more continents, countries, airports and assuredly, more cargo holds, than most human beings.
As I write this there are 18 emails and 24 expressions of condolence on Facebook. A lot of them are from people who got to meet her and say they are glad they did. The others are from people who know how very much I am going to miss her, even if they don't know why.
On Monday at 11:13PM I wrote on my Facebook status, "
I wrote in my newsletter yesterday:
"Yesterday my tiny, Japanese tiger died suddenly at home in Singapore. She wasn't ill and there was no evidence of an accident. I 'googled' Sudden Cat Death and discovered it is much more common than I could have guessed and the vets seem to agree that heart failure is quite common even in younger cats. Inu-chan was 10 and a half years old.
I regret that she did not live long enough to enjoy the much deserved celebrity that would have been heaped upon her after Memoirs of a Cat Named Dog hit the New York Times bestseller list but the 22 messages of condolence received within 24 hours suggest that she had already enjoyed more than her 'fifteen minutes of fame'.
Inu was not the first of my cats to die but she will be the last. My heart is not strong enough to do this again."
With each day I find the strength to write more. I still can't talk (or write) about her without crying but I am finding the words, and that is a very good thing. Unlike all of the cats I had before, Inu will live on in 'her' memoirs.
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After a year, I still cannot even read this without crying.
ReplyDeleteStill crying.
ReplyDelete