Not Very Wordless Wednesday: Sparrow's Swan Song

Red-headed Alec came to me and said, "Sparrow is losing weight, and I'm worried about her.  She was throwing up, and she won't come when I call her and she always comes when I call her.  She also didn't sleep with me last night!"

That last symptom was the scariest to me, Sparrow always slept with Red-headed Alec, ever since he got her as a 6-week-old kitten.

Thus i called Dr. Bea, and was told to get her in right away.  Red-headed Alec went to get her and not only did he find her hiding in a dark corner, which she never did, she didn't fight going into a carrier.  This was a cat that tried to take off any hands that put her in a carrier.

The news was grim -- liver cancer, advanced.  The liver was lumpy and she was badly jaundiced, and if we wanted to take her home and give her fluids and see if we could get her eating again she might last a few weeks, or a month or two.

Red-headed Alec grabbed her, told her good-bye with tears, and told them he didn't want to see her suffer as he walked out.  Later he told me he didn't want to prolong anything so he wouldn't change his mind.  Dr. Bea offered to bury Sparrow out on her land, by the pond near the forest.  A great place for a cat to run and play.

This was the last picture i had taken of Sparrow, in her favorite place:

Sparrow on her favorite perch, a sleeping Red-headed Alec.

Today is:

Chief Red Cloud Day -- marking the Sioux leader's death in 1909; defender of Native rights, son of Lone Man and Walks As She Thinks

Constitution Day -- Thailand

Dewey Decimal System Day -- anniversary of Melvil Dewey's birth

Do Something Wild and Crazy with Velveeta Day -- guess they mean besides turn it into Hillbilly Hor d'oeuvres (melted with Rotel and served with chips)

Election Day -- Mauritius

International Animal Rights Day

International Human Rights Day -- anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948

Lux Mundi -- Ancient Roman Calendar (honoring Libertas as the bringer of light into the world)

Magal de Touba -- Senegal (commemoration of the departure into exile of Ahmadou Bamba to Gabon, a Sufi religious festival)

National Lager Day

Nobeldagen -- Sweden (Alfred Nobel Day, presentations of the Nobel Prizes at the Stockholm Concert Hall)
     Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony -- Oslo City Hall, Oslo, Norway

Sister-Friend Day -- internet generated, but if you have a sister who is a good friend to you, it's worth celebrating

St. Eulalia of Merida's Day (Patron of runaways, torture victims, widows; Merida, Spain; Oviedo, Spain)

Whirling Dervishes Festival -- Konya, Turkey (through the 17th)


Anniversaries Today:

Mississippi becomes the 20th US State, 1817


Birthdays Today:

Raven-Symone, 1985
Bobby Flay, 1964
Kenneth Branagh, 1960
Susan Dey, 1952
Gloria Loring, 1946
Dan Blocker, 1928
Harold Gould, 1923
Dorothy Lamour, 1914
Chet Huntley, 1911
Hermes "Pan" Panagiotopolous, 1909
Mary Norton, 1903
Melvil Dewey, 1851
Emily Dickinson, 1830
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, 1787


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Wings Over America"(Album release), 1976
Lawrence of Arabia(Film), 1962
"The Mighty Mouse Playhouse" (TV), 1955
Grand Ole Opry (first radio broadcast), 1927


Today in History:

Martin Luther publicly burns the papal edict demanding that he recant, 1520
Isaac Newton's paper De Motu Corporum in Gyrum, containing the derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley, 1684
The Massachusetts Bay Colony becomes the first American Colonial government to borrow money, 1690
The metric system is formally established in France, 1799
The first traffic lights are installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London, 1868
Women's suffrage is granted in Wyoming Territory, the first in the US, 1869
Women are granted suffrage in Tasmania, 1902
The 10,000,000th Model T Ford is assembled, 1915
The Grand Ole Opry makes its radio debut, in Nashville, Tn, 1927
UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
Ralph J Bunche becomes the first black to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, 1950
The United Nations General Assembly approves Pakistan's proposal for establishing nuclear free-zone in South Asia, 1981
The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland; the closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages, 1993
An archive documenting the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda is revealed in the capital city of Kigali, 2010