My friend, Shadow: a eulogy for a feline companion
It's been just over 24 hours since I said goodbye to my friend, Shadow. His condition had not responded to treatment, and I could not stand to see him slowly wasting away, his stomach swollen from the symptoms of the cancer that was killing him. At 3:30pm his vet arrived, and after a brief conversation, gave Shadow a shot that allowed him to fall asleep while resting comfortably in my arms. I can still feel his purr as his breathing slowly eased and he relaxed, free from the pain that had been growing steadily worse. After about ten minutes he was sound asleep, at which point I laid him gently on the table and Dr. Kennaway gave him the final shot that allowed him to pass on.
Lo, there do I see before me my friend and companion,
Lo, there do I see before me His Majesty Shadowcat.
Lo, there do I see before me the line of his ancestors
back to the beginning;
Lo, do I hear them calling out His Name.
Lo, they call him to join them in the Halls of Sessrumnir,
Where he will be hale, and happy, forever.
http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL151/1556826/2976832/45186075.jpg
I placed about Shadow's neck a talisman inscribed with a bindrune to ease his journey to Freya's Hall, carved by my hand and marked with my blood. I anointed his forehead with the same runes, using water from a spring sacred to Odin. Dr. Kennaway promised to make sure the crematorium does not remove the amulet; she will return his ashes to me, and take me to a place that provides receptacles for such remains. I will choose one that can be inscribed with his name and the dates, as well as hold a picture of him.
Shadow was my friend and companion for close to thirteen years. He would have turned fifteen in May, a very ripe old age for a Cornish Rex, but no matter long he might have lived, it wouldn't have been long enough. After my best friend passed away last October, Shadow was the only family I had left, and the house is bereft by his absence. I know my friend Roderick will watch over him until I join them, and while I will not do anything to hasten that day, I can't help but look forward to that reunion with a certain amount of longing.
Farewell, my four-footed friend. We will meet again in Freya's hall.
Lo, there do I see before me my friend and companion,
Lo, there do I see before me His Majesty Shadowcat.
Lo, there do I see before me the line of his ancestors
back to the beginning;
Lo, do I hear them calling out His Name.
Lo, they call him to join them in the Halls of Sessrumnir,
Where he will be hale, and happy, forever.
http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL151/1556826/2976832/45186075.jpg
I placed about Shadow's neck a talisman inscribed with a bindrune to ease his journey to Freya's Hall, carved by my hand and marked with my blood. I anointed his forehead with the same runes, using water from a spring sacred to Odin. Dr. Kennaway promised to make sure the crematorium does not remove the amulet; she will return his ashes to me, and take me to a place that provides receptacles for such remains. I will choose one that can be inscribed with his name and the dates, as well as hold a picture of him.
Shadow was my friend and companion for close to thirteen years. He would have turned fifteen in May, a very ripe old age for a Cornish Rex, but no matter long he might have lived, it wouldn't have been long enough. After my best friend passed away last October, Shadow was the only family I had left, and the house is bereft by his absence. I know my friend Roderick will watch over him until I join them, and while I will not do anything to hasten that day, I can't help but look forward to that reunion with a certain amount of longing.
Farewell, my four-footed friend. We will meet again in Freya's hall.