Hard Work Dying

They say the nodule is really a mass and that’s why he’s almost stopped eating. “Have people moisten his lips," the vet said “and try to get a little food into him. Next week you’ll bring him in and we’ll figure out how to keep him comfortable.”But he runs from us; seeks quiet corners, the way soon-to-be-mama-cats do when the time comes to deliver…And oh to have watched this handsome and muscular boy shrink and flatten; to see emerging his fern-frond ribs and the innocent buttons of that long backbone: so sad. Do I bring him to the vet and slink away? Hold him ‘til the end? If I could carry home some secret elixir and set him free myself as he dreamed of mousy glories wouldn’t I do it! …..Or maybe some turn of fortunes awaits us yet.Hard work, being born; hard work dying.