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Post Info TOPIC: Cat Funeral
JD The Jazz Doctor


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Cat Funeral
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Hey-


I had sort of a sad but very nice evening earlier tonight. An old girlfriend of mine, still a very dear friend, had a cat die yesterday that she had for 14 yrs- from back when we were together- "Beaster". Well Beaster died yesterday after a bought with kidney and liver disease. This was a wonderful gray domestic shorthair cat that adored me years ago.


So I got the e-mail today at work, would I come over for dinner and would I like to throw a shovel-full or 2 of dirt upon the grave out back by the pine tree. I felt at first silly, but then honored to be asked.


R has since married, in 2000, has two wonderful little boys ages 4 and 2 and I am friends with her husband who is a good guy.


So here we are, its getting dark, the oldest asking the profound questions "what is death, why bury etc" and the little one liking to play with the pile of cat-grave dirt. They are a Christian family so the boys were asked to say a little prayer lol "goodbye beastie, say hello to jebus...." and we buried the cat. Just then it began to snow.


Had a nice dinner of cooked chicken (the cats favorite), a bottle of wine, and got home just as the roads started to get slick. It was a nice evening. But I do feel for R, that cat was with her for a long long time, and along with it dying, so too we die away from the past a little bit more. I could tell it affected her more than she was letting on.


But it was nice to touch base with these wonderful people and an honor to be asked to say goodbye to this member of their family, and a part of my past, in our own small way.



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"And like Web, I enjoy throwing JR under the bus.  Problem is, it's usually under the special bus that I ride every day". Ghostdancer 12-18-09
ray925


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Ahhhh JD that's nice. I remember coming home from college and not seeing Bonnie, our little Scotish Terrier. Then I looked out in the back yard and there was a cross. She died the day before and my brother and mom had buried her. It was like a shot to the gut. She was 12-13 years old and had been with us since I was 9 or 10. I went out back and looked at the cross and had a good cry.

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JD The Jazz Doctor


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oh yea.....that would do it, hey ray?

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"And like Web, I enjoy throwing JR under the bus.  Problem is, it's usually under the special bus that I ride every day". Ghostdancer 12-18-09
Dylan


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JR, that was a poignant story...the past may get smaller in the rear view mirror, and yet it can be right there with us un the blink of an eye

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ray925


Darth Raydar

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I find it very interesting how a smell can take you somewhere. A scent of perfume to an old girlfriend, a kitchen smell takes you back to grandma's kitchen.
This is not as good as that but on very cold mornings if I smell diesel exhaust it reminds me of our ski trip to Wisconsin when I was a senior in high school. I went with a group called Young Life and we traveled by bus to northern Wisconsin. When we left it was something like 30 below zero and the smell of diesel exhaust just hung in the air. Weird, but it brings back fond memories.

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Jeremy Riggs


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Sometimes when it rains around here in summer, the air smells fishy, or wormy, or something, I'm not quite sure what it is. But it always reminds me of childhood vacations to the lake up north.

If it rains 30 times in the summer, only one or two of them will have that smell, but I always look forward to it!

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Dylan


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music and scents have a way of crossing the boundaries of time very easily...not surprisingly, they are both billion dollar industries

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ray925


Darth Raydar

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So it wasn't my grandma's cooking but corporate America creating my memories?

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JD The Jazz Doctor


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I will say this, I am not really mourning or anything, and the fact that I was asked to be a part of this little cat funeral attests to just how awesome a person R is.


But yea, getting this message and invite, it was literally early 1990-something all over again, risen to the surface. I found it amazing that that part of me got woken up by news of this death. Its not the present me that was stunned for a bit, it was the 1993 me, amazingly close to the surface of consciousness of who I am now.


I don't think we age subconsciously from that which has ever fell within our domain, our circle of care, even tho we physically age away from it, and it gets consciously filed away in some holding cabinet...



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"And like Web, I enjoy throwing JR under the bus.  Problem is, it's usually under the special bus that I ride every day". Ghostdancer 12-18-09
ray925


Darth Raydar

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This is where Dan Fogelberg's Same Old Lang Syne comes in. Pangs for the past but living in the present. Funny how the good memories always remain while the bad ones tend to fade away.

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JD The Jazz Doctor


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ain't that true?? ain't that true....wow...

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"And like Web, I enjoy throwing JR under the bus.  Problem is, it's usually under the special bus that I ride every day". Ghostdancer 12-18-09
Dylan


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Nostalgia can be so strong some times, and Ray you are right, sometimes it can be triggered by the incidental things we take for granted when we are actually experiencing them.

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Pambo


Waiting To Be Widowed

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Wow. I needed to read this tonight. Thanks everybody.

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disco strangler


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really sorry to hear about the cat....  very touched that you were invited to a part of the services.  "listening" to y'all talk about death and how time escapes us, etc....  well, just listen to a song by the flaming lips sometime called "do you realize"  (cd:  yoshimi battles the pink robots). 

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You should fear anything that can bleed for seven days without dying...  (as told to Mr. DS on 3-12-10)
JD The Jazz Doctor


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I've got that! good stuff!

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"And like Web, I enjoy throwing JR under the bus.  Problem is, it's usually under the special bus that I ride every day". Ghostdancer 12-18-09
disco strangler


Smiles everyone, smiles!

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i think ffr should play flaming lips

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You should fear anything that can bleed for seven days without dying...  (as told to Mr. DS on 3-12-10)
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Thanks for sharing JD. I will say a prayer for her and her kids as they mourn.


 


Our minds are a wonderful thing sometimes



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Woo Hoo


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It's weird how much a death can make you think even if it was an animal. I know how much my step-daughter's Step-Dad's death changed us all. It was a year ago last Sunday that he was killed by a drunk driver on the job. (tow man)

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Lady Strange


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Thanks for this story, JD.  Very nice.


First let me say that I'm glad you can still be friends with your ex, and that she included you in this. 


I had a friend I was very close to, and although we're still in touch, it became less and less once he got married and moved further away.  He got a cat about 20 years ago, when we were still hanging out a lot, and he named the cat Leah, after "Ah Leah" by Donnie Iris, which we LOVED.  I recently found out the cat died.  And on my birthday, no less.  He told me after the fact, and I felt kind of weird not being notified about it when it happened.


Anyway, ...  Think I'll request that song now.  For Leah the Cat.



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"Tell me, does it move you, Does it soothe you, Does it fill your heart and soul with the roots of rock & roll?
When you can't get through it you can listen to it with a 'na na na na', Well I've been there before"
-"Been There Before" by Hanson
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