A Mother's Memories to Her Child: My Pets

"Your righteousness is like the great mountains;
Your judgments are a great deep;
O Lord, You preserve man and beast."
Psalm 36:6

Joyce
The first pet I ever owned
A little parakeet - can't remember the name but he sang a lot. He was very friendly and people oriented.

The pet I most loved
Jill, my Angora cat whom I loved dearly. The parakeet would sit on her.

Other family pets
John had a dog - a German Shepherd. We had several smallturtles and some baby chickens. We also had Blackball, a very sweet outdoor cat.

The pet I always wanted
At one time, a horse. Ed got one, and he was mean. They (Dad and Ed) had a hard time with the horse. He threw Ed and hurt him. He got rid of the horse.

My favorite book or movie about an animal
Black Beauty
Old Yeller

My best animal story
My mom telling me about her pet pig and her pet goat. She loved those pets a lot. She told me about the goat eating stuff it was not supposed to and her dad killing her pig for food. Also, her bunny rabbit.


Dawn
The first pet I ever owned
I had family pets, though I suppose I did not own them; my parents did. They were Sir John, a white cat, and Roxanne (Rocky), a Shelty. The first cat I owned was named Primo, but she died. I loved her so much and got her when she was a kitten. She sat in my lap while I watched TV. We kept her in the bathroom, and, one night, I went in to feed her and play with her, but she ran right under me as I was sitting down. I sat on her and broke her neck. It was truly awful. Then I got Emma who was from the same litter. She was a joint Mother's Day and my birthday gift from a friend.

The pet I most loved
Sir John. I cried unconsolably when he died. My parents told us on a Saturday morning when I was about to start watching my cartoons. They buried him in the backyard.

Other family pets
Bear - a mutt. He was a puppy when Rocky was an old lady. It was cute to see them play together, or, rather, for Bear to play with Rocky while she looked at him. 
A turtle my brother caught in the bayou nearby who was eventually eaten by Bear. 

The pet I always wanted
A fluffy lap cat. Preferably an Angora or Siamese.

My favorite book or movie about an animal
That Darn Cat!
Socks by Beverly Cleary

My best animal story
My mom told me Sir John used to lay on the headboard and swipe his paw at her hair, eat her ice cream, or purloin her popcorn.

The Appearance of Grief

Fire all consuming
With an emptiness inside -
The world is upside down
Until the sinews of my life
Break like threads in
 A rusty needle.

I am the one inside the
Proverbial haystack -
No one is looking for me.
They are all lost in their own
Piles of straw.

These waves of change
Flood the plain of our existence
Making it hard to breathe
Consuming all the oxygen
Until there is only
The tightness in my chest
The bowling ball in my belly.

I can bang against my chest
But no amount of violence
Will bring back what has been

Taken?
Lost?
Voluntarily returned
From whence she came.

I shuffle off the chaff that
Threatens to drown me
Emerge into the field of my bovine brethren
Squint against the glare of the fire in the sky.

This is my reality -
New
Bizarre
And, oddly, beautiful.