March of Loss
“I’m at the vet specialist with Snowball,” I said into the phone, “trying not to think about Snowball.” I’m losing cats in reverse order. Spot, the youngest, died of heart failure four months ago. Snowball, the middle cat, has barely eaten since then. Did you know cats mourn when another cat dies? I didn’t even know they liked each other. For 13 years they fought. Spot bullied Snowball and stole his food. The wrestled over use of the heated pad and played a fierce game of King of the Cat Condo for the window space. When Spot died, I tried to show Snowball that he was gone. Snowball walked on the corpse, as if in triumph. And then he lost half his weight, as if to show that half of himself is missing without...
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