A Feline Passing

Yesterday, The Woman informed me that Abby, the beat-up 15 year old Tom Cat from next door, passed away. As much as I disdain emotional moments, I admit to my moment of silence honoring this neighborhood institution. Abby would hide behind the shrubberies and attack me as I left the house for my morning constitutional, taunt me from his yard, spray on the flowers, bury his droppings in the garden, stop The Woman or The Man from returning home by lying in the middle of the driveway and refusing to move, and entertain me by beating up the other neighborhood cats in our backyard.

I know that it was not just my house. Other Canines informed me of similar situations at their homes. Since I took over this territory, I have witnessed many criminal activities on his part, but opted never to enforce my will. He was a talented hoodlum.

Abby was what all housebound animals desire to achieve. He was an independent mind among the opiated, well-fed masses. He was a Feline that I grew to respect as he showed no fear toward my Shibaness nor disdain. He merely saw me as an obstacle to his routine, and vice versa. I considered him to be a isochronus thorn that I allowed to remain as he maintained the Balance. I am interested in waiting to see which Feline decides to take his place in the neighborhood hierarchy.

So for you, Abby, as you begin your travels to the other side, I say:

Remember the clear light, the pure clear white light from which everything in the universe comes, to which everything in the universe returns; the original nature of your own mind. The natural state of the universe unmanifest.

Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it. It is your own true nature, it is home. - Tibetan Book of the Dead

I Am Shiba. I Shall Say No More For Today.