A Sad Memory

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Here I bury Monster.  A few days later I would lay Stonewall Jackson next to him.  Both of them were wrapped in towels with flowers between their paws.  Both of them were poisoned.  Nothing will ever bring them back.  They were my friends.  They were worth so much more than the entire family of the person that did this.  Hurting a helpless, sweet pet that is very loved is an evil thing and deserves retaliation on the most ruthless of scales.  In our society, unborn children are murdered at the whim of the irresponsible woman who decides to do so.  Cats are killed with impunity.

    In '96 I moved into a decades unused pasture on the far east side of the county.  After a year and a half of Travis County bullshit, I was finally allowed to buy a subdivision of someone's private property.  Austin does not want the rural folk selling their considerable land holdings, it takes away from the city's power and revenue.
     In August I moved my trailer onto the land and began clearing it.  My very first night on my country property, a lifelong fantasy, I was having a cold one in front of my trailer and reading about Chancellorsville.  I was listening to a small shortwave radio and using a shrimp net cube, about 3' by 4', as a table.  I had just got to the part where Stonewall smashed into O.O. Howard's left flank, turning it and destroying Hooker's excellent bid to crush the Army of North Virginia once and for all, thus winning the war.  I was having a smoke and the sun was going down when out of the canebrake in front of me three cats came a'howling and a'mewing on my left, achieving complete tactical and final victory over my heart.  
     They were led by the most astonishing tomcat I have ever known, a black and white greedy slubbergullion who had taken charge of two kittens.  

Tomorrow, the naming of the cats and my 23 days with Tommy.  Stay tuned.


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