When it rains it pours

Occassionally life insists on kicking you while you're down. Sadly enough we have lost a second member of our family this week: our sweet old cat Karel. Some people might frown upon hearing me call him family but those people have clearly never had a pet. Especially not one like Karel.

We don't know exactly how old he was. He only showed up on our doorstep 9 years ago, but we do know he was pretty darn old. The best guess is that he was 21 which in human terms puts him more or less at par with my grandfather. None of our other cats were ever fortunate enough to live to such an advanced age.

They say you don't own a cat; they own you. That was definitely true for Karel. One summer he started coming around and eventually, after some phone calls to his then "caretakers", he ended up staying. He had chosen to adopt us as his new family. Karel was the sweetest natured cat you can imagine. Everybody in the neighbourhood knew and adored him. He was clever too. When he was younger he had figured out how to open doors by jumping for the handle and leveraging his body weight. His jumping days were long gone. These last few months he even needed a little stool to help him get up on the sofa.

Every time I left Holland this year I would take a long good look at him knowing it could be the last. This time I was certain of it though. He had stopped eating a few days before already and he was getting visibly older by the day. Walking out the door yesterday was heartbreaking. He passed away quietly late last night. He was old, tired and he has lived a long and happy life but the timing is awful. We are all going to miss him dearly.

Some days life just really sucks.