Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Missing Blacky




Last night was a rough night for all of us. Amilia cried herself to sleep last night, I spent quite a bit of time lying with her. It is heart breaking watching your child so inconsolable...she just kept saying "I want Blacky". She finally went to sleep.
Nathan ended up lying down with us in bed for awhile. He didn't cry, but said "I'm very sad." Then he just laid there with us. Our child who talks non-stop was silent.
After he went to bed, Jim and I laid together and talked about Blacky. He was a "scrappy cat", always coming in with scrapes, cuts, limping. We don't know what he was doing out there in the wilds of Greensboro, but he found someone or something to fight with. He also blessed his family with meals...we have found mice, rats, birds, baby rabbits sitting right in front of the back door. He wanted to keep us well fed.
Most of the time, if we couldn't find him and we knew he was in the house, he would be on a high shelf or on top of the entertainment center. We would call him and he would peer over the edge, looking to see if he really wanted to come down or just stay out of reach.
The last time I saw him, before he got mean, he was at the back door, on his back feet, stretched all the way up to the door knob with both front feet on the door knob. I'm sure if he had the strength, he would have let himself out.
This morning, both kids are home. They have Benchmark testing today and I do not feel that they would do well today on any tests. They do have make up day on Friday.
Amilia is still asleep. I don't expect to see her for another couple of hours.
I looked into Nathan's room this morning to find his bed empty. I figured he had gotten up and was either eating or watching TV. Walked around the house and couldn't find him. So I went back to his room and quietly called him. Up pops his head from the other side of the bed. He had fallen off the bed this morning and just stayed there with all of his blankets and stuffed animals around him. So we talked some this morning. He, lying on the floor, and I, lying over the edge of his bed. He is handling this well. He says he is still sad. We talked about things that Blacky did and what we would miss about him, he cried a little, but he seems to be doing well. Blacky was his cat, or rather, he was Blacky's boy.
We still have Hiway, the cat we didn't really want (the kids did, I just saw him as another being to take care of at the time). Hiway seems to be affected as well. He has stayed close to the house, did not go out last night like usual and only went out this morning for a short period of time. He has never been without another cat. Maybe he will start spending more time with the kids.
So today, we are going to go to toys r us and get two stuffed black cats. Amilia really needs something to hold, Nathan will feel left out.

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