The End
Harvey went missing on Sunday. The last I saw of him was him gleefully climbing the fence to look at the birds at next door's birdtable.
We called him intermittently all afternoon. As it grew closer to dusk, we went out and checked all around the neighbourhood.
All through the night we went out looking for him. He'd never been out after dark. It was cold and snowing, and he hated the cold. He wouldn't go outside if it was cold.
Even then I knew that something was wrong. He would have come if he could have.
I went to bed in the early hours. The Baron continued to search. At five, I felt a cat land on me. My heart soared - Harvey was home!
But it wasn't Harvey. It was Charlie taking over Harvey's job of waking me.I counted the minutes until the sun rose. Then I walked around the neighbourhood again, in my dressing gown. In the snow. The neighbours were surprised!
I had to leave for work. The Baron carried out on looking. He made a poster for us to put up.
Work was awful - I couldn't concentrate. I came home as soon as I could, and sped down the motorway.
We set off around the neighbourhood with our posters, torches and cat treats. Nothing like his favourite biscuit to lure him home.
It was so cold, it was difficult to push the tacks in to hold up the posters. We plastered the village from one end to the other. We put a few up outside the school, knowing that the children would want to help by checking garages and sheds.
We came home and waited. It didn't take long.My phone rang. It was a woman asking if I had put up the posters. I could feel hope spreading through me as she spoke. Then the two words.
"Bad news"
That was it. All over.
She came over to tell me in person.Harvey had been found on Sunday evening after a church meeting. He had been hit by a car on the sharp corner that brings you into our village. There wasn't a mark on him.
He was already cold, and there was nothing that could be done. They took his body out of the road and wrapped him up, so as not to upset the children the next morning on the way to school.They put notes through the houses nearest to explain, since Harvey would not wear a collar. Kept chewing them off.
The next day she saw us putting up our posters. And she knew who to call.
I collected his body and brought him home. The Baron didn't want to see his body, but I had to. I cuddled him whilst the Baron dug him a grave in the garden. The others came and sniffed him.
I didn't want to put him down again. He started to warm in my arms, and I could feel that his back had been broken. His end had come quickly. Too fucking quickly - he was two and a half.
The Baron left me to bury Harvey - he couldn't do it. I cuddled him and placed him in his grave. I threw the earth over his face first and I thought my heart would break. To see my baby, so full of life and mischief, lying in a hole in the fucking ground, still, cold and lifeless, was too much.I shut my eyes as I finished covering him.
I couldn't bear to see any part of him there. He didn't belong there, he belonged on my bed cuddling his brother.
And that was that.
We have marked his resting spot with some beautiful stones. White with black speckles, just like him. The Baron has made him a little headstone, and I have put my favourite cat ornament on his grave.Harvey is the first thing I see when I open my curtains in the morning.
I just can't believe that he is out there and not here with us. I can't believe that he is gone.
Harvey Cat. My first, my best, my soul cat.
Harvey 
posted by DMouse007 @ 1/26/2005 01:42:00 PM
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