Post # 407   LANDLORD AND TENANT (In Memoriam to “Cicero”)

The actual mode of acquisition of a pet cat or dog, is of no consequence; as a matter of fact, it is completely irrelevant. The sole, operative fact, is that by its admission to your household, you have thereby entered into a Landlord-Tenant relationship, with Nature (effectively, the Planet), the two-faced, landlord; all smiles and kindness at the outset of the lease, but cold and unrelenting at its termination.

The term of the lease, is non-specific, but the understood, sense of the transaction, is that it is coterminous with the estimated, life-span of the particular pet, with, absolutely, no option or provision for extension. The legally indicated, “Lease Purpose,” is specifically limited, to the non-commercial, spontaneous, exchange of love and affection, for the non-specified term of the lease, which includes, in addition to solicitous care, unlimited exchanges of affection, games, photography and unlimited anthromorphic interpretations of common feline behavior, including, meows and other sounds, as, and when, spontaneously emitted.

Routines are behaviorally negotiated, in the case of a pet cat, as to mealtimes, playtimes and snuggling, but not in the areas of sleep; since cats sleep, on and off during the entire day. Over the years of the lease, all parties, human and animal, become fully acclimated and accustomed to each other, both in presence, routine activity, and temporary absences by the human tenants. Life, happily and routinely, goes on, with all parties, both human and feline, exhibiting nuanced and lovingly expressed, behaviors and activities. Things proceed, the time passes, is ignored, and, all too soon, the lease is suddenly up. In Cicero’s case, it was advanced cancer, and, unhappily, the situation seemed to offer, no empathic alternative to euthanasia, as hope faded, and Cicero evinced a marked decline.

In a previous writing, we observed, that to love someone, or something, is to predictably and unavoidably, render oneself vulnerable to loss. Life is finite and relatively short, for humankind, and the “lease on life” for a pet, even shorter. The pain and suffering of loss, however. is unavoidable; unless one avoids all loving relationships, which would make life, unthinkable.

So we were obliged to bid a tearfully painful and loving, farewell to our little Cicero, a truly unique and memorable, feline friend.

-p.