Most pets, since their life-span is much smaller than ours, are beings that pass through our lives. They come, they stay and enrich our lives for awhile, then they go — die, sold, given away, etc. We have had 2 such passages in the last few weeks.
The first, a sad passage, was our website-famous, dog-chasing cat, Murgatroyd, who so recently delighted our reader’s in Ted’s hilarious rendition of him chasing Ginny. Murgatroyd is often waiting on the drive (near a door) when someone comes home, in hopes of slipping in for another few bites of food, or just schmoozing around in the kitchen, usually in the rag barrel. He was always quick to hop out of the way of any vehicle, and go to wait by the door. This night, however, as Ted came back late from his parents’ house, for some reason, Murgle failed to move. Ted paused in his jeep, then proceeded to park, assuming Murgatroyd had gotten out of the way. He hadn’t. The small bump that Ted felt was him running over Murgatroyd and crushing him. Needless to say, Ted felt crushed, himself. I haven’t seen him that upset in awhile. Death produces stronger reactions in all of us now, I think, because we’ve experienced Andrew’s tragic death. It just resonates in a deeper way. Anyway, if I can figure out what setting to change so my pictures aren’t tiny, I’ll put in my favorite picture of Murgatroyd.
The second passage was actually a very positive one. Lydia decided she needed to sell her horse, Nino (That’s actually spelled n-i-enye-o, a spanish spelling pronounced neenyo), since she was leaving in June for SPEAC school and then college. The couple who bought him already have at least one Paso Fino horse. They are really horse people — I mean, the lady’s horse lies down and puts its head in her lap if she sits down to read outside! Nino had to pass the “kiss test” (submitting to having his head held and being kissed on the nose), and the “stand still test” (not walking off when she laid down and lounged around on top of his back). He will receive some much-needed training, get lots of attention, and best of all from his perspective, I think, have some horse buddies to stay with. (Nino ran around and whinnied plaintively for several days after Starbuck died.) Lydia spent a little time grooming Nino and having me take pictures of them before the new owners came to pick him up. They anticipated having a problem getting him to go into a horse trailer, so they brought another horse to help him feel comfortable. When he was led up to the trailer, he took one look and said to himself, “Horse? Food? All right!” Zoom, he went into the trailer!
O.K., down 2 pets, but stay tuned for another addition. On Thursday, Sarah is bringing a mixed lab puppy to Serena to be a companion for Ginny. We’ll have a report on that in an upcoming post.
