Comments, relating to the topic, are welcome, add a great deal to a blog, but must be in English, with no profanity, hate-filled insults, or links (unless pre-approved).




Saturday, May 30, 2009

Coming in Threes

Between sorting photos and everything else going on, writing for a new blog wasn't coming to me. The trip to Seal Rock was wonderful and a delightful three days with our friends. When you can still enjoy being with people after over 40 years, that's a good friendship. I took a ton of pictures as did Farm Boss and many will find their way to the blog. Words for them though didn't seem to be coming.

When we got home there were several things with which to deal. I had not mentioned that my cat, Persia, was living her last days. She was a very old cat and we knew it wouldn't be long. If she had not died, we'd have had to face putting her down. She had quit eating. She used to love to lie next to me, to come wherever I was, but in the last two weeks that had changed and she was more solitary-- perhaps caught up in the dying process. I would watch her breathe to see if she was still alive.

Before I left Monday, I held her on my chest for an hour or so and knew it likely would be the last time. Getting home, when she didn't come, we knew we had to find a body and eventually we did. She had just gone to sleep, gracefully and gently. We buried her out by the stone bench where she had loved to sleep on sunny days.

I cried as we all do when a beloved pet has gone on. Her aging process was a reminder to me of what I will face if illness doesn't take me first. I watched her wither, her weight drop, her hearing go, and I hated facing her loss. It's the price we pay for ever having the pets to love. The other alternative would be we die first and leave them. That's not a good thought either.

Then there was the calf. We didn't find it. We have yet to find its body and obviously it would be a body by now. The person looking after the cattle had seen the calf on Tuesday with its mother, or so he had said, but by Thursday morning it was gone. There are two possibilities. The most likely one to me is that it got into the creek and drowned. We have searched the banks but haven't yet waded the creek. We'll do that on the week-end.

If the creek didn't get it, then something took it off the place. That could be a theft or the thing I'd least want to think-- a cougar got it. We know they live in this area but we have never had one predate the livestock. If that is what happened, the problem will not be finished.

It was after that when I thought about that old saying about how things come in threes. I thought it's silly to even think of it, but I wondered.

Perhaps the third came Friday when we saw the emergency vehicles head to the neighbors' home up the road. We found out soon that their 4-year old grandson had taken off with their dog, and there was no idea where he went or what happened. By nightfall, trained emergency teams were on the hill and they had a tracking dog who had picked up his scent. Aren't such groups wonderful!

When they finally found him, it was two miles away and because the homes in that area had been alerted to keep an eye out. They heard their dogs barking and found the dog first and then the small boy. He was okay and as of yet I don't know why he ended up where he was.

If the first two stories had sad endings, this one had as good a one as possible given the upset that goes with a child disappearing that way.
Anyway above is the photo of Parapluie, Fisherman, Farm Boss and me that we took with self timer when they arrived at the beach house Monday afternoon. The first photo is the view from the beach house. There will be a lot more photos to come but it's hard to get my mind around organizing them.

Wednesday night at the beach, I had realized that I was dreading coming home. I had put my return out of my mind until then. It helped me enjoy the trip and truthfully nothing going wrong here could I have fixed.That is how life goes sometimes.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Rain, I am so sorry that your kitty is gone...and to have a calf that is missing. Good luck and sympathies.
Cop Car

Linda said...

Very nice Rain. A beautiful picture of life as it really is. I could follow every one of your emotions.

So much of what we expect life to be is fictional, this is real life.

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

I can relate to not having much to say about the photos that I took when we were at the coast. It was so much like when we were in Tucson and we marveled over the variety of life in the Senora Desert. We would take slides and process them ourselves. Then show a slide show when family and friends gathered. Now there is frustrating Power Point, blogs, Photo Bucket and maybe printing a few. It is easier to take pictures now but organizing hundreds of pictures was not fun for me when I could have been painting yesterday. I think I should leave the picture taking to you because yours are better by far.
I like the group portrait of us very much.

Darlene said...

I'm sorry that you had to come home to the loss of your kitty. Yes, that's the down side of having pets.

I wish the calf had been stolen; then he might survive, but I am afraid that your other alternative is what happened. Another down side of having animals.

On the good side, that scenic photo is beautiful. What a fabulous view to see every day. No wonder you didn't want to return. And the group photo is great.

Dick said...

I am sorry about your loss of a long time friend, and the calf too. For most of us, I think the death of a pet is our first experience with having to face the loss that a death causes. Next I guess is Grandparents and then our own Parents. You and I are within days of being the same age and I am now troubled by having to go to memorial services for friends, many of whom are about my age. That sure brings home some thoughts about end-of-life! I guess it isn't a bad thing, just a part of life, but I think there will always be unfinished things that I'll not get done.

I will enjoy your photos as you post them. I would love to get Pat to agree to an RV trip down the Oregon Coast, maybe this fall. It is certainly a place of beauty.

OldLady Of The Hills said...

I am so very sorry to read about your dear dear sweet cat....It is very very hard when we lose our dear pets...
Abd the Calf....Oh, that is very sad, too, Rain...I got very caught up in this saga....I am so sorry to read that the calf has disappeared.
And I am Sooo Happy they found that little boy! Sometimes life is very hard and one wonders what it is all about, anyway....At least I do.
I look forward to seeing more pictures of your time away..!

Joy Des Jardins said...

Rain, I'm very sorry about your sweet kitty....the hardest part about owning and loving pets. I'm sorry to hear about your missing calf too...that's difficult not knowing exactly what may have happened. I am very glad however that the little boy was found safe and sound...that would have been a real tragedy.

Nice picture of the four of you....

robin andrea said...

I'm so sorry to read about your sweet cat, Persia. But what a graceful exit, to sleep and not awaken.

I thought about the calf while you were gone, wondering if it would finally connect willingly with its mother. It's sad that it did not. I hope its exit was as easy as Persia's.

The Oregon coast is beautiful as always. I love seeing your photos of it.

Ugich Konitari said...

Your note about things happening in 3's triggered a memory. You see, in our culture, they study and define a constellation configuration that exists in the skies, during each life event.

It has happened during certain deaths, that setting was so inauspicious that it defined what can loosely be translated here as a tri-happening. It means this particular death foretells 2 more deaths soon (like within 2 years) - a set of 3 . I have actually seen this hold true in my aunts family.

I wonder if this holds true for animals too.

Regardless of this, I want to say how sorry I am about your kitty, and the little calf....

joared said...

Sorry to hear about the animal losses on the farm. I, too, have been intrigued by the "threes" concept in past writings.

Your photos are lovely, reminding me of how much comfort I've always derived from bodies of water.

A friend is going through the same experience with her cat as you describe. The past year the cat, Allegro, has seemed on death's door but manages the bare necessities of life,responds to a brief pat, then buries her head in a blanket, or in her corner of a sofa the rest of the time. We've marveled she still survives. I almost dread weekends there this summer as it doesn't seem possible to provide comfort and pleasure to Allegro, but maybe just our company is enough.

Rain Trueax said...

Your three comments have been particularly interesting to me. It's something I have been told all my life but never really knew from where it came nor how much weight to give it. Things can't really come in threes... or can they...

Fran aka Redondowriter said...

I'm so sorry to hear about Persia, but it's a blessing when an animal goes naturally. You did come home to a lot of stuff. I assume the calf you are speaking of is the same calf that wasn't bonding with the mother before you left, right?

And I'm so glad the neighbor boy was found. That's scary.