Obituary

By last evening the little cat, one of the faces of the franchise for 20 years, was about done. She made the final decision between today or any of the next two days as she was neither eating, drinking or able to rise without difficulty. I took little joy in ending the suffering. I'd marked part of my life with her spirit and toughness. She was the last survivor of numerous cats that arrived at the farm one way or other over past 18 years--Mop, Polo, this one's little black mother, Lazy Rodney, Lazy Larry, and so on. Barn cats all. I always thought she'd be the last to go, and today was the day. As a little tribute I'll include below one of the notable literary efforts describing one's final day. Two views, same event:

Faust, age 100, last speech

"Faust: To this I hold with devout insistence, wisdom's last verdict goes to say.

He only earns both freedom and existence who must reconquer them each day.

And so, ringed all about by perils here, youth, manhood age, would spend its strenuous year.

Such teeming would I see upon this land, on acres free among free people stand.

I might entreat the fleeting minute, Oh tarry yet, though art so fair.

My path on earth, the trace I leave within it, eons alone cannot impair.

And so fortasting such high happiness to come

I savor now my striving's crown and sum.

(Faust falls back, the Lemurs catch him and lay him on the ground.)

Mephistopheles: No joy could sate him, no delight but cloyed.

For changing shapes he lusted to the end.

He who fought me off so well. Time triumps;

Stranded lies a whitened shell. The clock is muted.

Chorus: Mute, like midnight it is stilled.

...the hand is fallen.

Mephistopeles: Fell, it is fulfilled.

Chorus: It is all over.

Mephistopheles: Over, stupid name.

Why over? All over and pure nothing just the same.

What has this constant doing ever brought, and

what is done is raked away to nought.

So it is all over, how to read this clause?

All over is as good as never was.

And yet it whirls about as if it were.

The eternal empty is what a prefer."

--Walter Arndt translation of Part II of Goethe's Faust