Keeping Up With Kaht and Devin: The Good & Bad

Sometimes it seems that the really good always comes with a side of tasteless bad. Perhaps it is an old wives tale, but once it has happened to you, you peak over your shoulder not really wanting to think it, but slightly wondering...what is going to go wrong. 

Last night Devin and I received some wonderful news: my cat Leisl could come live with us! It had been one of those things that we knew could not happen for a while and we had resigned ourselves to leaving Leisl at The Farm with my family. He is a cat, so what does he know? Well, everytime I go down to visit, that cat comes jogging up to me and settles himself in my arms as if to say, "You're staying now, right?" 

But now, he can live with us! It was some of the best news ever! I went to sleep with a smile, imagining the weight of Leisl at the foot of our bed. 
Then this morning dawned gray and wet. Normal for a fall day in Vermont. I plopped down the stairs to start the day and walked by Ruby's cage. "Morning Ruuuuby!" I sang my normal morning greeting to the round bellied white mouse. And normally she would rustle out of her house and do her belly dance for her morning treat. 

It was quiet. 

I flipped on the lights and inspected her house. There was my Ruby, cuddled in her bed, quiet and still. There would be no mousey belly dance today. 

It had been coming and we knew that. Ruby was pretty old by mouse standards. She started showing her age just this past summer and I knew it would happen soon. She would limp around her cage when she felt stiff and did not run on her wheel as much. But she ate and drank and still did her little belly dance for treats! 

We knew it would be soon and I had hoped it would not happen during all the hustle from the wedding because I might have missed it. And she held on and made the kids at the wedding giggle with her skittery moves and nibbly noises. 

When she moved with me to Devin's, we would stare at her in the evenings and make jokes about how old and fat she was getting. As if she understood, she would hop on her wheel, give it a half hearted turn and hop off. "I exercise when I want too." 

We knew she was old and that it might happen soon...But, I did not know it would happen today.

And I did not know it would make me feel so sad. 

I thought it was an old wives tale, but sometimes the good comes with some bad. You just have to focus on the good and not waste your time looking over your shoulder, waiting for the bad. xo Kaht