Paw prints

I noticed these on my neighbour’s back steps the other morning. Cats stop by at my back patio every day, but I didn’t realize that they also explored my neighbour’s balcony. Evidence of the cat or cats will disappear once the sun comes up and melts away the dew.

For many years I lived in places where snow covered the ground during the winter. In the snow it is easy to find paw prints of many kinds — dogs who had to turn the snow yellow, cats meandering, raccoons cutting straight lines to mark an X across the backyard, deer looking for any sign of greenery — and these prints often lasted a day or two until the snow melted, or more fell to cover up the evidence.

When Toffee died I ordered his paw print in plaster as a keep-sake. It helped soothe the pain, and made me feel slightly less guilty. Making the decision to let him go quickly in order to avoid days of having him suffer alone was a decision wracked with guilt. I didn’t want to play God and decide the exact time that my little angel was going to die.