Well, in this Forge of Life, that hammer blow came outta nowhere... and there's still no sign of Sage, the best four-legged friend I ever had. There is the remote possibility that he will make some sort of miraculous reappearance in the future, but I'm thinking he may have bought the farm... the harsh reality here in rural or semi-rural Arizona is that the outdoors can be a dangerous place for small domestic animals, particularly at night when predators tend to step up their game. And this place is thick with predators, coyotes & raptors (including owls) constituting the main threats, but there are also venemous snakes, Gila Monsters, etc., to test a cat's mettle... I've searched the 'hood several times, stopping to call out Sage's name, with absolutely zero response, just an empty silence. Poor ol' Sage, I reckon he slowed down a tad too much due to his age, and some varmint(s) jumped him from ambush or whatever. Maybe he'll still turn up, I've alerted the Animal Control officer and I'll check the "Found" ads in the local rag, but I think I've lost my little buddy for good... and as it has happened too many times in the past with friends & loved ones, I never got to say "Goodbye" to my pal of so many years, didn't even get to bury him at the Stronghold, the way I buried Jingle Belle in the White Mountains when I lost her, 10-4?
These are the hard facts: there's an attrition rate in life, and nobody here gets out alive, that much is guaranteed. Seems like half my high school class (mid-to-late-'70s, Class of '79) has already died, with good friends dying bizarre untimely deaths in their 20s, 30s and 40s... way too early to be checking out, but that's the way it goes, Death comes to all of us in the end. I know I've cheated Death on several occasions in the past, enough to make me reconsider and reevaluate certain personal behaviors and extreme sports activities in which I participated... one can cheat Death by taking calculated risks, but like a good poker player, Death always wins in the end. My only consolation here is that I gave Sage 15 or 16 good years on this planet, and he lived to be around 20, might have even been a bit older, hard to tell since he was "rescued" at least twice during his life. I did the best I could, and henceforth all my other cats will be locked down in the house at night, it's just too dangerous out there after dark with all the critters in this high desert country. Oh, yeah, I didn't rescue just one animal on Friday, I chose to jailbreak two young kittehs so the house wouldn't feel so lonely in Sage's absence... they've been hiding under the couch for three days now, but they're eating well, taking water, and thankfully using the litter box which I placed (temporarily) at one end of the sofa. Here's the new blood:
That's Tiger on the right in the first two photos (his shelter name, he lacks the scrappy disposition of Sage the Tyger), and Tabby on the left with the white markings. I may keep Tiger as the young male cat's name, but the young gal will undoubtedly receive a new moniker, I'm thinking "Phoenix"---not as a nod to the metro dump, that ghetto hellhole, but as in rising like a phoenix from the ashes of Sage's memory, yeah???
Here are some shots of Crackhead, he has been kinda sad over Sage's disappearance, and he's not sure about the youngsters yet:
Poor Crackhead, like me he has been in a funk, but hopefully he makes friends with the new blood and they can be playmates... there's been a hiss or two over the weekend, but I reckon that'll soon pass and they'll get along famously, it's only a matter of time. I did note that one of the youngsters was already exploring the house at night, saw the kitteh as I visited one bathroom in the wee hours, but I couldn't tell which cat it was in the dark, I think maybe Tiger. So that's a good sign, they should both be cruising around their new home before long, and they seem happy enough under the couch for the present.
Who knows? In time, they may even venture into the yard, but only during daylight hours... I meant what I said about locking 'em down in the house at night, but they can go out during the day. Sage disappeared overnight... that's when the coyotes creep up the wash by the boneyard and work their way up to the level of my street. Anyway, the walk-through gate to my yard (east side, where the deck and BBQ area lie) now sports this sign, a gift from me to one of those friends I mentioned earlier, he passed away at age 41... he was one hell of an archer, shot a primo Black Widow longbow at the tournament level, and he dug this sign when I first presented it to him. Now it's on my gate, go figure, but it'll serve as a reminder of our friendship. We met in high school as young skateboarders & social outcasts... skateboarding was still a crime in those days, aye???
