Missing my old friend

Taking a life leads to much contemplation, even if it is for humane purposes.

Where is my friend who curls up beside me when I am working during the day?
Where is my friend who sleeps on the end of my bed at night and greets me when I wake in the morning?
Where is my friend who gives his unconditional love to me, day in, day out?

I miss my old friend, as I sit here yet again, contemplating life, and death. And try and explain it to my children....

Dear Mischa

We planted a tree for you.
Always in our hearts.

Today

we are saying goodbye to Mischa........

Mischa the hunter

He might be thirteen, he might have cancer, he might be on his death-bed and he might have just thrown up his breakfast, but he will be a hunter until the bitter end.
He just got a magpie on our balcony!!!
I had to pick him up, bird in mouth, take him back out on the balcony and holding on to the back of his neck give him a little shake until he let go of it!!!

It flew off as fast as it could, it all happened so fast I can hardly believe it did happen.
Those cheeky birds - what are they doing on our balcony, they know he lives here.

Mischa

Went to the vet today. She suspected back in February that he has cancer. He has lost almost 2kg since then. Everything is pointing in that direction.We have a couple of weeks to spoil him and then she wants to see him again, for he last time.... Before he starts to suffer too much.

Makaila took these phtotos herself.....

Another squirrel

bites the dust. That is 3 in 3 days. NOW my little hunter has a bell around his neck.
Long live the rest of the squirrels in the trees in Traneberg.

Dead animals...

Visions of a half-eaten squirrel, dead birds trapped in a cupboard and a wasted moose.

Mischa caught two squirrels over the weekend, we took one, he ate half of the other before I took it from him. Two less squirrels we will see in the trees around here. Spring is the time to put a bell on him.

I found two baby birds trapped in a cupboard downstairs in our cellar, trapped until their premature death, never to see the sunlight.....

We watched Into the Wild last night. Excellent soundtrack.
I need to watch it a couple of times to absorb it.
Yet another testimony to the impact of the child/parent relationship.
It was delicious, it was visual, it was disturbing. Watch it and decide for yourself.

Mischa & Sascha

At the moe I have 2 cats, although it has been a while. Sascha is here with us for a month while her family is away. I wasn't looking forward to it but it is nice to have her back, I just wish she wasn't so damn shy. The kids love the cats and want to get their hands on her - especially M, but Sasch is scared of anything that moves - except me.
I had a teary day at the vet last Monday and I take Mischa back again on Thursday - my birthday. The vet will sedate him and xray him to see if he has a tumor in his intestines. God forbid my birthday present is being told my old boy's days are numbered.
He has been throwing up, licking his fur off on his stomach and his stomach has been grumbling. He also stopped eating. Since being at the vet last week and discovering he had an incisor broken off at the gum (and infected gums) he has started eating again. He has also been on soft food so he has not had a grumbling tummy. We did discover vomit tho, this morning and again this afternoon. But since we have been home Sascha has chucked twice and stopped eating so I am beginning to wonder what is going on. Could he have a virus that he has passed on to her? I am going to de-worm him this weekend so we'll see what happens. My biggest concern is his weight - he is so thin.
Saying good-bye to Mischa, and to Sascha is going to be a really hard thing for me. I decided just after I moved back to Sweden in 1995 to get a cat - ok, so I convinced TW that we should have one and the cat-home refused to separate these two, so two it was. I have had a cat all my life except for my 4 years at uni and the year I was here in '91.
A home with an animal in it is a much calmer home. So to say good-bye to these cats will be an end of an era for me - they are as old as my life in Sweden, and it marks the end of what brought me here in the beginning............
Not to mention that I will miss my babies dearly.......

But no point in having them dead and buried yet. I will take Misch to the vet on the 14th and if they xray and he is ok they they will take out the tooth that broke off. And we'll take it from there. But as T says, I have to face it, they are getting on in age......