Friday, January 18, 2008

Loves from the Past

With my recent losses as well as recent or upcoming anniversaries of those who departed long ago, I am reminded of the Beatles' song, "In My Life" -- particularly the lines:
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life
. . . .
On this day of Cat Blogging, I am also reminded of pets who were part of my life -- a variety of dog breeds throughout childhood, one beagle-dachshund (Heidi) in my adult-life, and then mostly kitties. Before Tabitha and Samantha -- who have been a part of my life for the past 19 and 13 years, respectively -- I had another pair of kitties who were with me for a significant time. They were Reggae (tabby) and Abbott (mixed tabby and abyssinian). Reggae had a different mate named Jazz, but he died as a kitten, then I adopted Abbott. I was sketching way back then as well. I sketched this pose of Reggae and Abbott in 1984. When they passed away, an era of my life came to an end.

My deep sympathies go to blogger NTodd of 'Dohiyi Mir' blog whose dog Rin Tin left this earth yesterday, as well as for one of my brothers and sister-in-law who also faced the decision of ending the suffering of their dog Max of 14 years on Wednesday. My brother wrote a sweet farewell commenting on how Max loved the snow and then on his last day it snowed for him.

To Max, Rin Tin, Abbott, Reggae, Jazz, Heidi and all other beloved pets who went before, we often stop and think about you . . . in our lives.



1 comment:

Catherine Fairchild said...

Stella, I love your kitty drawings. Keep up the nice work!

A line from one of my favorite hymns says:

"All the good the past has had Remains to make our own time glad."

Recently I was bemoaning the fact that someday my own favorite cat (who's currently young and healthy) will die and I will never see him again. But then I realized that many times when he's actually sitting on my lap, I fail to "see" him because I'm on the computer, reading a book, or otherwise preoccupied. So failure to see a loved one doesn't necessarily mean that he or she isn't right there beside you, whether in the flesh or not!