Ginger, the cat, in action . . .
“office clerk” c. 2007
“book reviewer” c. 2011
Ginger’s favorite story
“building inspector” c. 2009
* * * *
at sun-kissed window
waiting in wide-armed writing chair
for his pounce
* * * *
Losing a family pet is part of living with animals.
Many of you have eloquently expressed a similar
loss, which I would like to be reminded about if you
have a moment. When it happened to me recently,
I was not expecting to be smacked off my feet.
Our Ginger cat, indoors-always for at least
12 years, was at age 17, feeling quite elderly.
So we knew we would be losing him. We were not
prepared for the sudden, unplanned, necessary
good-bye. It was challenging for us, massively
more difficult for him. I am grateful for our animal ER
open in the middle of the night & my husband, who saw me
through that & still eases me in this palpable absence
of my daily purring partner. We buried Ginger on a recent
brisk sunny morning at a high point of our back yard,
by whispering bamboo.
I am finding relief in poet Alvin Greenberg’s
WHY WE LIVE WITH ANIMALS (Coffee House Press.)
The words I scraped out above are thanks to
Laura Purdie Salas, whose book
CATCHING OUR BREATH, Writing Poignant Poetry,
(Capstone Press)
nourishes me.
