Thanks to Camri Clawson

In reading Camri Clawson’s column on the joy and grief of pets, she understands the pain of loss and writes about it perfectly. I think it was Rose Kennedy who said, “Time doesn’t heal all wounds, it just forms scar tissue.”

I experienced the joy of an unusual friendship with a cat. Unusual in that the cat was devoted to me like nothing I had ever experienced. A cat who went for beach walks regularly with me, high tide or low, who visited neighbors just for a “hello,” who waited at the tip of the driveway while I walked for the mail, who stared at me for what seemed like hours every time I sat down, or got in to bed, and who in her final weeks climbed onto my air mattress to float with her “person” in the early autumn warmth on Case Inlet. At times, even after a year, the grief is still so raw, it’s immeasurable.

In the end, after a cancer diagnosis, I prayed for a miracle, and got one, but only for a short time. The worst part of her loss was a vet who came to the house with a cold, emotionally detached demeanor, truly adding insult to injury. Camri Clawson’s vet was the opposite, with warmth and compassion.

At times, I wander in my heavily forested yard and find myself calling her, but only the wind in the trees responds. Someday, I am confident, as I approach the heavenly Rainbow Bridge, I will call her name, and Joolz will come running.

Victoria Nelsen, Lakebay