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Bertine's Wandering DELILAH DICK OBIE |
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She was nearly 12 years old, when she returned from an outing and didn't
eat. Instead she curled up by the fire and barely moved.
Bertine was born ugly. The rest of the litter had cute black and white markings, but she was a mottled gray, her tabby markings undeveloped. When they were old enough we put a sign up in the front yard advertising free kittens. Within a few days all were adopted, except for Bert. She grew to be beautiful and she had personality. She listened and talked, played and cuddled. Bert loved to roam and would be gone for days at a time returning proud and satisfied with a mouse or bird, barely mangled, but definitely dead dangling from her mouth. Once she returned with an abscessed paw. The vet treated it and bandaged it and she limped around awkwardly for weeks. Another trip resulted in a swollen eye. It was so puffy she couldn't open it and the vet removed the eyeball from the socket, sewing the lids together. It healed leaving a crater where a green eye had once been. Bertine didn't cease her wanderings. Even as she grew old, our one-eyed cat made her rounds of the neighborhood and beyond; exploring, hunting and returning with small, dead prey. She stayed there, curled in a ball next to the fireplace for three weeks. She was content and continued to listen and talk, but didn't eat. Her flesh melted away, leaving skin and fur draped on a decrepit frame before her breathing stopped and her frail carcass began to cool. Once again Bertine was wandering and where she would go was anybody's guess. We buried her body in the back yard. |
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