This morning on Tuesday, 2/23/21, we found our cat Moocher lying dead in the snow. She has been with us for over seven years. During the winter of 2014 (our first winter at Merry Mount), we gave shelter in the barn, and fed, a feral cat we named “Mouser”. Within a month, Mouser was joined by a second cat who we caught stealing his food. We named her “Moocher”. Shortly thereafter, Mouser disappeared, but Moocher stayed and we began to notice that she was looking broader and by May she had become the Mother Cat of Merry Mount.
We will miss those beautiful green eyes and the almost daily routine of a visit from the barn to the patio door where she would climb the railing, look into the great room, and aggravate Minnie (our Jack Russell terrier) through the glass window.
So today under a bright blue sky, I trekked out to the edge of the property with shovel in hand, and with Moocher placed in a shroud of white (an old pillow case), dug through a foot of snow and a few feet of soggy earth, to “lay Moocher to rest”.
It is fitting that today, just before a nap; I read the following words from Sam Keen:
And once again, I feel the gift of life and the terrible mystery of death… Rationally, I know that in the overall economy of our perpetually changing ecosphere, death is as necessary as birth, and that whatever is not always dying is never living.
In closing, we give thanks for Moocher’s life and for the joys and aggravations that she bestowed upon the residents and visitors to Merry Mount.
CPW
P.S. We give a special thank you to Vivi for the lovely photographs.
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