Reactions

I want to take a moment and thank everyone who has offered their kind words and sympathies this week as I said good bye to my dear pet.

One of the things a lot of people have asked about is Aiden's reactions, if any, to Skywise not being with us anymore, so I thought that would be a blog worthy topic.

In truth, Aiden has probably not noticed the change in the count of animals in our house at all. Aiden's "pet existence" is dominated by our 90 pound Golden Retriever. She follows us from room to room, and when the dog enters a room, the cats make for the exits, or the underside of a bed. Which means except for the rare occasion that a cat would brave the downstairs while the dog was outside, or we would come upstairs and find a cat on one of the beds, Aiden rarely sees or interacts with the cats.

Aiden did pet Skywise a few times, and she tolerated it with dignity. But in hindsight, I can't recall a single instance in which Aiden has seen both cats in one place at the same time. So in his little mind, he might not even realize there were two different cats. So he still catches glimpses of Chessie, so there is still a cat in the house and all is well.

When the dog goes, that will likely be a different matter entirely, as he has bonded with the dog. Fortunately, she is only 5 years old so with any luck she will be around for many years to come.

The dog does seem to be missing Skywise on the other hand. There are all sorts of theories on animal grieving, and Leetah has been with Skywise for all of her life. When we got Leetah as a puppy, Skywise outweighed her, that VERY quickly changed, but it seems as though the dog does sense the loss and is a bit sadder than her usual self this week.

In other news, we have had WONDERFUL weather here in middle Tennessee over the last few days, and yesterday Aiden and I went out to the park and spent an hour running out some of that pent up energy from being cooped up inside during the cold days. It is bound to get chilly again soon, it is only February after all, but in the meantime we are going to try to get the most out of this wonderful weather that we can.