BUT, when I got home I opened the back door for some air and noticed something under our picnic table.  Sadly, it was Creamsicle: one of the local feral kittens we feed.  He was dead.

Zoe and I were just going to start school, but that was put in hold for the morning.  I gave her the option to see him.  She wanted to and spent a long time crying and petting him.  It was so sad.  He was the one who would meow back at me, and got quite close.  I really thought we  would pet him for real someday.  

Zoe was overwhelmed with sadness and brought up Granddad dying as well.  It’s been a hard week, and this seemed to make it all real for her. And me. She picked a spot by the wysteria I planted and we buried him. Wrapped in an old pretty shirt I had set out for donation.  Then Zoe put in a catnip mouse toy she had just made, and some food, and a pretty flower from her garden.  We cried more before covering him.

He spent a while outside and came in later with a pretty rounded rock for his grave marker.  She wanted to decorate it and put “Adorable Loved Creamsicle” on it.

She decided she did want to go for Music class at the school and also to stay for lunch.  I’m glad she got out but Dr. Siira her assigned class teacher said she seems sad and out Of sorts. She cried the while way through the BX to check mail and get a slushy. But at home both Zoe and Avi were happy to practice violin and read books before quiet time.

This evening we enjoyed the other side if life’s coin.  I took dinner to one of the families in the squadron who just had a baby.  It was great to chat and hold the baby.  I even got him to sleep.  After visiting there for a while we stopped into another friend who just adopted two Korean babies!  They are having a yard sale and we took some donations.  Again we visited for a long time to hold the babies and listen to their excitement as new parents. 

It helped us more than them… Turned my sad funk around and both kids seemed to truly enjoy seeing the babies.  Zoe said it best, “today was full of both things: death and new life.”