Today we are sad, tragedy has hit our home and we are mourning the lost of a precious little kitten, Jack. Please keep us, especially my daughter Allyson in your thoughts today, she needs additional strength.

Ally fosters kitties for a local Animal Rescue group. She is really amazing and very dedicated. She cleans kennels (at least once each day and at times more), plays, feeds and waters them. She also cares for the sick and has been known to even do middle of the night bottle feeding when needed.

Jack and Jill are two little kittens that we captured from a colony of feral cats in hopes to keep them tame and find them homes. One of our nursing momma cats adopted them. They are so sweet.

Sometimes life takes unexplainable turns. In the middle of the night last night my husband awoke to a ruckus in the shed and upon closer inspection (racing out screaming with flashlight) he discover that a raccoon had gotten in and had actually got one of the kittens. There was nothing we could do.

This is Ally, please think of her today! She is not looking so beautifully happy today.

As of right now we have moved all the kennels into my daughters bedroom until sun up, when we can figure out what to do from here. We really do not have space inside. We do have a more secure shed but need time to install it, two to three days probably.

Please send strength. This has been a hard night. My daughter is sad; very, very sad. I am sad too and in addition feel helpless to my daughters needs. I can not fix it, I can not even explain it, the circle of life can be so tragic without explanation. So please think of Ally today, she needs the extra strength. And for all my children who have to endure this loss. Thank you.

PS. We have had so many well wishes and kind thoughts. It means so much to us all. I am going to share a note I received from my Aunt, a very wise woman who has a way of putting things into prospective! Her thoughts mean so much to us.

“Oh…I’m so sorry.  I’m not sure how I would explain it either but I think I would start by saying that the raccoon just wants to live too.  It’s hard to take but there are some pretty magnificent animals in the world – polar bears, lions, tigers – who kill other creatures to survive themselves – especially baby creatures because they’re easy marks.  It’s sad in one way but the polar bears and lions are so beautiful I wouldn’t want them to go away either.  Ally knew the kitten and that makes it harder to accept, but if it were the raccoon she had the relationship with, well…you get the picture.  In fact, cats kill things to live too. If they don’t, we buy them food which is essentially things killed to feed them.  I’m reminded of something I read in Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” which essentially says that a thing can cause you to be sad only in an equal degree to the happiness it has given you and that this is the way of life.  She’s sad about the loss of the kitty because she knew it and loved it – it gave her happiness.  The ying and yang of it always go together in every aspect of life.  You can’t be hurt by anyone you don’t love – but if you don’t love you miss that part too.

I remember when Rommell died (remember him?) I probably wouldn’t have gotten another dog – his loss was just too painful and I didn’t want to go through that again.  Then Michael brought Max home without ever talking to me about it.  Since then I’ve come to the conclusion that the pain at the loss of life is still worth being involved in the life.   The joy, companionship, comfort given to me by Rommell and Max and Sam and Gabe was all worth the pain of the loss at the end.  It’s the good parts that stay with you – not the relatively brief pain of the loss.  The same thing is true for Howdy – to this day I remember – sometimes vividly – good times, and that one moment of loss is gone.  This is what give life meaning – to have the lost remembered.  I think it would be nice for Ally to write in a journal about the life of the kitty – perhaps with a footnote about how the life of the raccoon will continue for a bit because of the kitty’s sacrifice.”

Note: I do remember Rommell her dog! And Howdy is her brother (my uncle) who died at a young age in a car accident.