Greyhound is now in good Norfolk earth below sunny autumn sky. A good age. About 15.5 years. There was a problem about what to do with Black Cat. The decision was not difficult. I would keep on going out each morning as normal to see if he came with me round the recreation field.
Yesterday was the first day. He came as expected but behaved very differently, making many more vocalisations than usual. At one point he sat by a parked car and howled (if cats can do such a thing) like a banshee. I was taking photographs and nearly got myself into trouble. He lept up on the car. I just manged to get him off before he did serious damage to the bodywork. On Thursday my better half helped me take Greyhound to vets on her final journey. As we manhandled her into the back of the car, Black Cat got up onto the roof. When he was persuaded to get off, he scratched the side of the car!

Today, we went round the field again. He still behaved strangely, running around, hackles up, arched back, dug holes then didn't use them, howled some more, looked left and right.
There is always a danger of anthropomorphism in these cases, but as the saying goes, "They know you know", but just can't tell us what it is they know. What was the name of the dog and what was the Dickens book?

I will continue to take him for a walk every morning if he wants to. It will be interesting to see if he continues to show enthusiasm for it. I think he liked the pack of three! Pity my White Cat doesn't roam far from home - well, she has been neutered.

The grave is near the back door. I put her head facing the south. In the evenings I have been sitting out with her, glass of Tempranillo or Rioja to hand, and feeling comforted by it. Yesterday I stayed out till it was almost dark. Today I built a low cairn of beautiful Welsh slate in a fan pattern, right above where her head is.

I made a decision to time it so that she spent the last half an hour of her life out walking. It turned out to be nearly an hour. The sun shone in a cool breeze and she got to see Denis potter's " blossomiest blossoms". Even had a little skit around. But she never sat or lay. Never did. Always stood, all her life, except at bed time. I got a good few photographs of her and cat together, which I hope I have focused properly. My one regret is that I have no movie footage, like I have of my last dog, a whippet/lab. lurcher, who I think about often still after 7 years.

If you read some of my Baghdadskies you will see my views on religion. I think our own personal experiences of death - I've just had one - involves ontology recapitulating phylogeny in a mental sense (and emotional and psychological if we are being pedantic). It shows clearly how we, as social beings, have gone from ancestor worship to Monotheism. Time, perhaps, to retrace the steps that led us to this unnatural, delusional religion.

JHWH was once the God of War, (Israel = God [El] fighteth/"Jehovah in the Old Testament is Iahwe Cebaoth - the Jehovah of the armies of Israel.") in the Old Testament, according to Miguel de Unamuno in "The Tragic Sense of Life"(1921). How come he turned into such a caring God over a few thousand years?

For those of you unfamiliar with the good senor, a quote:

Man is said to be a reasoning animal. I do not know why he has not been defined as an affective or feeling animal. Perhaps that which differentiates him from other animals is feeling rather than reason. More often I have seen a cat reason than laugh or weep. Perhaps it weeps or laughs inwardly - but then perhaps, also inwardly, the crab resolves equations of the second degree.