My Cat Blackie

Image courtesy Photobucket.com

My dad found a beautiful black cat down at the railroad yard where he worked, and when he brought her home, he told me that she was mine. We named her Blackie to fit her color.

As an eight year old, I loved that sweet cat, and how she could purr and sing away the blues when I was sad.

One day my brother Allen was holding her, and she was purring very loudly. My Aunt asked Allen, what is she singing, and he answered, “She is singing, Yes Jesus Loves me.”

Eventually Blackie had a litter of kittens. Most of them were black and one was a grey and white stripped alley cat mixed color.

Because on Fridays, at my school, we had a time for “Show and Tell,” my mother helped me bring the kittens in a cardboard box to my class room. The kitten’s eyes were opened and they were so cute, that all the children wanted to hold one.

“Can I keep one?” several asked. My mother seemed very happy over those words. “Ask your parents, and let Hazel know, and we will see that you get a pretty one,” My mother told my classmates.

The details fade away, but every one of those kittens found a good home, and my parents were very pleased as well.

As it happens to animals, one day Blackie got very sick. My Dad told me that she had distemper, and she was not long for this world. He also told me that she was suffering, and that the kindest thing we could do for her would be to send her to cat heaven.

There was no pleading from me, because I could see her pain. Dad had already purchased a can of chloroform, and I watched as he poured it onto a towel and placed Blackie, and the soaked towel under an upside down galvanized wash tub.

Dad sat with me on the back porch steps and we both cried because we equally loved that black cat.

After enough time had passed, Dad began to dig a large and deep hole at the rear of our yard. Then he picked up my limp cat, wrapped her in the saturated towel and put her and everything into the hole and covered it over with dirt. On top he placed some big rocks and that was her grave.

It is a sad time when we loose a pet whether it is a cat, dog, rabbit, fish or maybe a bird.

Even sadder still is it when we have to say “Good Bye” to our loved ones.

If our loved ones have received Jesus, then we know we will miss them, but it is not, “Good Bye,” It is only “Fare Well, and See you Later.”


This post is Linking up with Tracy at Winsome Wednesday
And with Jennifer at: God-Bumps and God-Incidences

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