Recently in Cats Category

I receive an e-mails every week about some of the more popular videos making the rounds on YouTube, Break, Yahoo, and a host of other video sharing sites. Most of the videos are quite entertaining, funny, or enlightening. And sometimes, they're not.

At first I thought this one was going to be one of the funny ones. But after watching for a few seconds I realized it was heart-rending and tragic in a way that people who don't have cats might not understand (we have seven living with us at The Manse). It brought tears to my eyes. (Yes, I know "it's only a cat", but that doesn't make it any less sad or painful.)

FOUR IN 2009

Thursday night our cat Sweet Pea was ailing in a terminal way. She's had kidney failure diagnosed a year ago. The sweet tough bird--so ugly she was fascinating to look at, her bug-out eyes made her look as though she were severely under the influence of some pernicious drug--lasted this long. The fetching wife and I bought her before the brood began arriving, shortly after our marriage in 1997.

Her brother, Willow, died suddenly, without warning five years ago. The other animal we had, before the children, died in the spring. Duchess, the regal and highly intelligent golden retriever, was a devastating loss for me when she passed away at home on March 11. I'm the dog person; my wife loves the cats.

We also lost a bunny, Eeyore, whom I sometimes would cuddle with when watching Michigan State football games.  I think stroking him reduced my stress, which that program amply dishes out.

And my mother-in-law who also lives with us--breaking my Rule 13: to live at least one hour's drive from a mother-in-law--lost her nearly twenty-year-old persian cat, Delilah.

Four animals in 2009, as my wife said during our special Friday night family dinner. No more, she said. I agree. Luckily we still have the gecko, the large fish tank, the two turtles, the three cats, and the two dogs (well, one's the neighbor's but he lives here during the day and tries to avoid leaving at night). The menagerie continues. And the fetching wife is on the internet prowl at local humane societies for another feline addition.

It's not often I will write or link to something emotional, something that brings tears to the eyes of even the most hard-hearted person. But I am this time.

It never ceases to amaze me how much effect our four-footed family members can have on us. It's also surprising how much we hurt when they hurt...and how much we grieve when they are taken from us.

And so it has been with Shawn Mallow and his cat, Treasure.

Go read their story.

Keep a hanky nearby.

When I saw this all thoughts of any kind of serious post ceased. Like its predecessor, this video gives you, the general public, some insight to engineers and how they relate to their cats. Trust me on this, cats are very important to engineers. After all, I am an engineer and I have seven cats sharing The Manse with me and my family.