Subtraction

I usually try to be amusing on this blog, even when discussing important world events. But there's a non-amusing side to me that I keep hidden. I hid it last week, and all the weeks before that. I'll hide it again next week. But this week I'm going to give you a glimpse of that side.

Loss seems to be the prevailing theme of my life these past few years.

First, I lost a job of 15 years.

Soon after, very soon after, I lost my mother. I had her almost three times as long as I had my job.

A year later, even though I got some money out of it, I lost the house I had lived in for 24 years.

This week I lost my cat, Omar. He'd been a good friend for seven years, through all the events I described above.

Some may think losing a cat isn't much. A lot of people don't like cats. They compare them unfavorably to dogs. They find cats snooty, even a little sinister. They certainly don't find them affectionate.

Well, those people who don't find a cat affectionate, have never had one jump on their lap and curl up in a ball. They've never been head-butted by a cat. They've never had a cat jump into bed with them right when they're about to go to sleep. They've never had a cat follow them around a big house, or a tiny apartment, for no reason whatsoever, other then they wanted to be in your presence.

Without a cat to trip over, that tiny apartment now seems a little bigger.

And my world feels a whole lot smaller.