Can’t say I did.
But after hearing this true story I became a little more easy with the idea until….
It happened in a place not far away and not long ago. The names of the innocent and confused are being deliberately protected.
One morning while I was picking up garbage left on the roadside by some of our finer citizens, I saw a man in the distance take a long branch and push something orange over to the side of the road. When he walked by, I asked him, “What was that?”
I had a funny feeling when he replied, “an orange cat.”
Cars speed along at a good clip here and it’s a fact that the felines crossing the road are seldom on the winning side of the encounter.
A neighbour who is known to care for these fluffy, charming creatures went out to take a look. I felt a nagging fear. He came back a short time later.
He was crying, “It is our cat!”
It was a heart-rending scene. I was sad all day.
We, too, have shed too many tears for kitties who have wandered onto the road.
The good-hearted neighbour gave his beloved kitty a proper burial. More tears were shed. I don’t know if there was music or a short eulogy. I didn’t want to pry.
The day went along, as many of them do.
In the evening, as the neighbour was in the throes of cooking dinner, juggling ingredients and frying pans, he glanced out the back door.
He froze.
Was that his cat meowing at the door?
It was!
“I just buried you,” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
When he recovered his state of mind and had been properly reunited with his pet, he realized that a look-alike cat had succumbed.
His tears turned to happiness; but not entirely.
“It was still someone’s cat that was loved”, he said, "and it will be missed."
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