ewald apperle

Zeus. What appears in the following lines may sound like an obituary to a human being. Yesterday, we, my wife and I, had to take a very difficult journey and had to redeem our beloved Zeus. Zeus is eleven and a half years old in human years, a handsome male cat, who weighed about eleven to twelve kilos before his illness. The kidneys did not want to work anymore, despite veterinary treatments and hospital stays in the veterinary clinic, special diet food and all sorts of other attempts, he was no longer able to eat and so he was finally only skin and bones, dried out with bloated stomach , just as I had to experience it with beloved people already. It’s so hard to see how a living thing is getting „less“ – how it suffers, and yet, Zeus was incredibly friendly, kind and cuddly to the very end. I will never be able to forget the last moments, the last touches. The eye contact, as he looked at me. I cry again, weep for a part of me, of us, who has left this world that will not come back. It is incredibly difficult to accept the death of Zeus, understand it and there are no answers to the why. Since we do not have our own children, (it’s the second marriage on both sides and we found that we do not want to have our own children when we’re over 40, considering that we have children from our first marriage and meanwhile have three grandchildren), was Zeus and is his sister Chiara (thank God still alive and with us), as our own children. Blind were both, still when we got them from the farm, blind and tiny small we had to feed them with a pipette, both had at that time in one hand place. So many countless hours full of joy with the two, cuddling hours and hours, where especially Zeus has comforted my wife or me with his sensitive nature and his very good character, just as if he understood the sorrow or the worries or the illness. I’m sure Zeus felt it. In general, Zeus was and is the epitome of feeling for me, you could see it with him and feel how he could be happy, how he could sympathize, how he was astonished, how he could be sensitive. His greetings, his hide-and-seek games, his attempts to catch snowflakes, or his: will to keep me from working on the notebook because he wanted to cuddle, his touch when he lay in bed in the evening close by, holding my arm with his paws and purring. I miss you! I miss so much! This morning, there was no Zeus there, who woke me up and went to the kitchen with me, to get his food and I got my coffee, no good morning Zeus and no meow, no flattering my legs.It is not that easy for us to bury animals dignified, but I organized a cremation, (cremation in the neighboring country), urn individually, etc., because Zeus was like a child of his own, not a human, but his character and his kind were wonderful and so wished my wife and I, a place for Zeus, where we can be close to him and above all to Him. Thank God we found this solution.No meow, no purring and no jump on the desk to lay across the notebook, nothing happens while I write this, only hot tears make their way over my cheeks. I’ll write some more stories about Zeus and Chiara, about their „childhood days“ and „teenage pranks“ about their funny sides, about their character. My grandchildren like stories from their grandfather very much and I also love to slice and read them. Zeus will always be in my heart and my thoughts his spirit will always be with me until my heart stops beating. When his heart stopped, the rift in my heart has grown a lot bigger. I think Zeus to a place where we meet again, to cuddle and cuddle, to hide and play. I thank Zeus for the time he has been with us, the joy he has given us and the love he has given us. Wherever you are my „friend“, my thoughts are with you. Time passes, including mine, everything is finite. © ewald apperle