Cat on a White Wooden Railing
Pretty much without fail after his dinner Greyman retires to the deck railing to watch the sunset. His positioning may change a bit over time but he remains on the railing until well past dark and every hint of color has faded from the far horizon.
I envy his dedicated ritual.
The aging king of a tropical garden domain filled with lizards and birds and in the last two weeks an infestation of mice pouring down from the dry ranchlands above. He looks so content and serene, doing fine with just one working eye.
You would never know that this morning he was having another major seizure where his brain can't make his back legs work and his front paws only move in slow motion. This is nerve damage left over from when he was given a three choices death sentence by the vet about two years ago. Of the three I am guessing it was toxoplasmosis.
He survived and kept on, seemingly unfazed, only momentarily pained by the recurring seizures. Most of the time he is as happy as a life of pure leisure can bring.
He belongs to this garden kingdom as much as the plants and the soil. It is my hope that he should rest in peace here, his spirit forever surveying and patrolling, lord of a miniature animal kingdom.
2 comments:
I envy his dedicated ritual too. That would be so nice to sit on the deck and watch the sunset every evening with Greyman -- and stay out there with him till well past dark. If there is such a thing as karma, he must've been really good in his past life to have been born into this life as one of your cats.
I was really surprised to read at that link that humans can get toxoplasmosis too. After I finished reading the one for cats, I looked up the info about human cases. Now I'm really glad I've always been so obsessive about only eating meat that's well-done, and also being obsessive about taking care not to cross-contaminate anything and about thorough hand-washing before eating.
The human sites I read before finding the cat specific one said about a third of the human population has been exposed. Most people show no signs of infection. It is a world wide organism we have adapted to long ago.
Being a kid who rolled around in the dirt and an adult who rolls around in the dirt and is in direct contact with all the creatures who are a link in the chain of this organism I am sure I have been exposed. Maybe that is why life sometimes works my last good nerve.
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