A Worry

Posted on January 4, 2003 in Grief

Four months after his dog died, my father suffered his fatal heart attack. With Ambrose’s death, combined with the stress of the matter hinted at down below, my mother’s recent visit, and Lynn’s being out of work, I feel a dull pain biting at my sternum. My little boy could have helped pull me through this. Of the remaining cats, Tracy is getting too old to expend comforting energies and Virginia has never been a cuddler.

The loss of a child, studies show, can be a real stressor that leads to illness. Would the same hold true, I wonder, for the death of a much beloved cat?

If it must be, I pray for mental collapse rather than a stroke or heart attack.

The plan is this: after Lynn finds work again and we’ve returned from our brief vacation, we will seek two kittens. The presence of the other should distract them from hectoring Tracy and Virginia, too much, though I suspect that the latter will welcome her new playmates. She still gallops from one end of the house to the other, chasing balls and feathered toys that she’s scattered about.