Rainbow Bridge

I love this photo of Mei Tu. It was taken last June, when he flopped down in the shade one day and called me to come play with him.

For those of you who might not know, Mei Tu belonged to my late buddy, Annie, who had the herb garden next door. After she died, several of us took over making sure his food was always laid out in the usual place beside the patio. Somewhere along the way, Mei Tu decided we could be friends (he had been most emphatically a one-woman cat when Annie was alive) and he pretty much moved in with Ralph and me on this side of the street.

This past week I noticed he seemed awfully tired and a bit off his feed. Instead of his usual hearty appetite, he would munch a few mouthfuls and then sit quietly, just contemplating the world. Because we had a stretch of days with lovely weather, he and I would venture out into the sunshine, leaving Ralph to gorge himself at his food dish. There we would sit, carrying on a conversation and indulging in a mutual touchy-feely orgy, with me scratching and stroking while he wound around my ankles and purred.

Until Saturday. I went downstairs to feed the "boys" and found Mei Tu laying beside the food dishes. It looked as though he had been walking along and simply collapsed. Heart attack? I don't know. All I know is, wherever Annie may be, I hope Mei Tu has joined her. And I know I miss him way more than I thought I could, dammit.

Today my youngest daughter, Patti, came down and helped me bury Mei Tu in Annie's garden. We picked a spot near one of the peaceful "alcoves" that contains a couple of chairs and a little table. There, beneath a towering rose and surrounded by clumps of Annie's beloved lavender, we dug the hole and carefully consigned his body to the space. Atop the burial mound, we placed a crock containing assorted sedum plants. It wasn't until we were almost through scattering bark over the soil that I noticed the name tag for the lavender variety -- "Graves" English Lavender, or "Lavandula angustifolia."

Annie must have a kajillion different varieties of lavender in that garden. What are the odds that we would end up beside the one with that name? I swear I didn't do it on purpose. But I'll bet Annie did.