I posted last week that my cat Biscuit had lost her appetite, probably because the intestinal cancer they found in February came back. I tried appetite stimulants and different kinds of smelly and tasty food, but no matter what she wouldn't eat more than a couple of tablespoons a day and she was losing weight fast.

She still followed us around, and sometimes talked to us and enjoyed attention, but she was acting uncomfortable more and more of the time (not purring or reacting when petted, not sleeping as much, but meatloafing and staring into space instead, sniffing at food as if she was hungry and then turning away).

So I asked the vet to come this afternoon and help her pass.

If you like to think about the meadow beyond the Rainbow Bridge, then imagine that Biscuit is happy to be able to cuddle with her buddy Angus again (he preceded her there in April), and there are perfect places for her to scratch her chin on, and lots of juicy noses to bite.

Hug your human and animal loved ones for me. Heck, hug your plants too.

"Kindness" -- Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
  Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
  you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
  lies dead by the side of the road.
  You must see how this could be you,
  how he too was someone
  who journeyed through the night with plans
  and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
  Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
  only kindness that ties your shoes
  and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
       purchase bread,
  only kindness that raises its head
  from the crowd of the world to say
  it is I you have been looking for,
  and then goes with you every where
  like a shadow or a friend.

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