Well, not so much for me. No. The merry ol' month of May has so far, been one of loss and death. My sweet little black cat (Pepper) was killed late on May 5th. Probably hit by someone driving home who had made merry on this festive holiday known to Mexicans as Cinco de Mayo. But I don't know that for sure, all I know for sure is that early on May 6, my neighbor had come to my door with the very sad news, I could see it on her face, she just felt awful. I had been in the shower and didn't hear her knocking. There I stood in my towel as she told me there was a black cat near her car, so time was of the essence. I hurriedly wrapped on my robe and went out as quietly as I could, to see if the cat in question was indeed mine, before Kyle woke up, because Wednesday is trash day here.
Oh no! There was my little cat, sprawled on the pavement just next to the bumper of my neighbor's car. At first, I was strangely unaffected by what I saw, that is until I reached down to pick her up. I won't go into details, all I will say is that the moment I touched her lifeless little body I started to cry, no I sobbed. After quickly scooping her up, I carried her to our back gate, which was of course, locked! So I had to put her down and then quietly tiptoe through the house to the back door so I could unlock the gate. I didn't want to wake up Kyle, I didn't want him to see Pepper like that. I took her to the back wall, laid her down and found my shovel. With tears streaming down my freshly showered face, I began to dig behind the breath of heaven bush near our back wall and our swing. In my somewhat panicked state, it seemed like the best spot for her in our garden. It's not a spot that would be disturbed. I gently laid her lifeless body in the quickly dug grave, by now my sweaty face was no doubt streaked with dirt as I wiped away my tears between full shovels of dirt. I told her I was so sorry, I don't really know why. I guess I blamed myself, since I had put her out the night before.
For some reason, I hesitated as I hefted her napping form into my arms and petted her warm fur. Then I opened the door and set her onto the porch. Then I put her sister, Tiger out too. Little did I know that would be the LAST time I would ever see her bright green half asleep eyes looking at me. I still wonder if I would be writing about this sad tale if I had even for one moment, just sat down and petted her a little longer, or if I had given into my momentary pang of weakness and let her stay in for the night.