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Gandalf's Rebirth
Nov. 23rd, 2010 03:21 pmMy mum phoned me during the weekend to give me some unique sympathy, asking if I had been scared of enclosed spaces or dying or bombs or mechanical failure or lightning or terrorists, ensuring that even if I wasn't before I probably am now. As if the week wasn't difficult enough already, she also informed me that our remaining cat had drunk antifreeze and died.
Just like the last time we lost a cat two years ago, I found myself strangely unaffected by the news, though it may hit me later - at the time I honestly just felt like laughing at the comical bad timing of it. Gandalf was never a particularly bright cat - he was pure black, and unlike his Grey and White variants as played by Ian McKellen, sort of went in the opposite direction as far as wisdom was concerned. His primary talent was that of falling over - one of the favourite distractions during any gathering was watching how far he'd rolled over on the back of the sofa and how long it was going to be before he tumbled off, and his usual method of greeting even the people that he saw every day was to stare up at them with his eyes popping out of his head before gradually collapsing over on to his side with a thump. But it appears that his stupidity finally got the better of him - to be fair, the vet who was treating him said that due to some mistake of evolution, cats love antifreeze because it tastes very sweet to them, and will happily drink it with the unfortunate side effect that it kills them a little.
My parents' cat supply is now exhausted, which at least means that there won't be any opportunities for further heartbreak during the week. They said they got his body back and held a small burial for him in the back garden next to Chekhov (which is bound to annoy him). I can imagine the epitaph - "Here lies Gandalf the Black. He really was a wally."
Just like the last time we lost a cat two years ago, I found myself strangely unaffected by the news, though it may hit me later - at the time I honestly just felt like laughing at the comical bad timing of it. Gandalf was never a particularly bright cat - he was pure black, and unlike his Grey and White variants as played by Ian McKellen, sort of went in the opposite direction as far as wisdom was concerned. His primary talent was that of falling over - one of the favourite distractions during any gathering was watching how far he'd rolled over on the back of the sofa and how long it was going to be before he tumbled off, and his usual method of greeting even the people that he saw every day was to stare up at them with his eyes popping out of his head before gradually collapsing over on to his side with a thump. But it appears that his stupidity finally got the better of him - to be fair, the vet who was treating him said that due to some mistake of evolution, cats love antifreeze because it tastes very sweet to them, and will happily drink it with the unfortunate side effect that it kills them a little.
My parents' cat supply is now exhausted, which at least means that there won't be any opportunities for further heartbreak during the week. They said they got his body back and held a small burial for him in the back garden next to Chekhov (which is bound to annoy him). I can imagine the epitaph - "Here lies Gandalf the Black. He really was a wally."
