Always be thankful

 In the fall of 2020, in the midst of everyone else having a terrible time, I was actually doing really great.  Construction was never halted, our lives had not been disrupted, everything seemed to be held in a snowglobe of peace and happiness.  I remember thinking "gee, I'm really sorry that everyone else is beaten down, but my life is going great!"

I had a cat, Lucyfur, who was 4 years old.  She would greet me whenever I came home  at the top of the stairs on my front lawn, rolling around on the path, so happy to see me.  We had her since she was a kitten, and she was the best cat.  

One day, she never came home.  I had always had outdoor cats, and had a few die over the years, but her disappearance was quite a blow to my happy little bubble.  I searched for her for months. I put up signs. I  roamed the neighbourhoods.  I scoured internet postings.  I did everything I could possibly think of to try and find her.  It threw me into the pit of despair that everyone else seemed to be feeling at that point in the pandemic and who was I to feel that my sorrow was more deep than anyone elses?

A few months later it was the deep of winter.  I usually had heated bowls of water left out for various wildlife, and knew that stray cats liked to stay under my shed, but seemed to see the same stray cat coming to the water bowl a lot.  After a while I decided to trap him and take him in for assessment. 

He had no tattoos, no chip.  His ear were stubbs from frostbite, and he had Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, and Diabetes.  We quickly made the decision to adopt him, my husband called him Mr Stubbs.  

It took a month of him living in the garage, and then a month of him slowly getting used to life in the house, but after that he was a house cat.  He took to it so thoroughly that it's obvious that he must have had a family at some point, and wasn't sure he ever would again.

He is the epitome of gratitude.  Every meal, every warm lap, every pet, every luxury, you can see how much he appreciates every single thing that is given to him.  He is always so thankful for the love and affection he receives and it always shows.  I have learned so much from him about gratitude and I am thankful every time I look at him for that.

Before christmas, I took him in to the vet because he was losing weight.  They did bloodwork, and then I got that call that no loved one wants to get: Mr Stubbs is dying.  He is in renal failure, and with all his comorbidities, it's too far gone and there's not much they can do.  He has less than a month left. He will die around 3 years to the day from when when we brought him in.

That was very hard to hear, but I was so very thankful for 2 reasons:

-for the last 3 years, we have had the best time with Mr Stubbs.  He has had luxury food, heated beds, so many pets.  He has given us so much love, so much affection, so much appreciation, in that time. I hope we have given him as much love as he has felt and given to us.

-At least, this time, I know when and how he will die.  Because not knowing the last time was the worst, and I never got to say goodbye.

And so, this Gregorian New Year's eve, I am thankful for taking pleasure in the little things that we experience every day that make up the joys of our lives with one another.  Because you never know when those things will not happen anymore.  

May we make every day worth it.

Song of the day: Ode to Spot from Star Trek: The Next Generation

As sung by Vanessa Cardui

https://youtu.be/fCtdUJopLi8?si=CqmCQ4tUda_cYq7-