A tale of kindness, gentleness, and truth, especially the truth that we must accept death as being as much a part of life as birth.

This caused me to remember an experience we once had, though the end was happier.

My new wife and I were going away to visit my parents over Thanksgiving, which is at the end of November in the States, and her younger sister was watching the house; sister allowed the cat to escape.  Understand the cat was declawed was most decidedly not an outside cat.  

The cat did not come back.

Later on, in the spring, across the street neighbor called me over and there was Mittens, curled up next to his chimney, a shadow of her former self.  When I brought her back in side, new wife shrieked and ran away, the poor thing looked so bad.  The happy ending is that she (the cat) fully recovered and lived long enough to tame the Labrador we got several years later.