Finding A Way To Laugh…Even When You Have To Put Your Cat To Sleep

Let’s face it. There are a lot of aspects of life that just plain suck. Unavoidable stuff, like car wrecks, cancer, relationship troubles, and of course, everyone’s prime irritant: death. And these things are bound to bum you out on a very basic level.

But buried within the fucked-up-edness of most awful occurrences, there tends to be an understandably overlooked companion: the ridiculous surrealism of the situation – and the inherently absurd comic realities and/or possibilities that it presents.

Not to suggest that everything, no matter how awful, is ultimately funny in some way. Depending on the person and the circumstances, some things are probably going to strike each of us as simply devoid of humor – as it should be. But for some people, finding humor in the face of extreme awfulness is a kind of coping strategy. An attempt to laugh instead of cry, as a way of co-opting the awful, rather than becoming another of its victims – which is what this website is all about.

So it was indeed one of those inevitable and deeply fucked-up situations when my 18-year-old cat Rexall was at the end of her life and it was time to put her down. Rexall was a very tiny feral kitten who had wandered into my house from a barn on the property where I lived at the time. She was incredibly skittish and would bolt at the slightest movement. It is a true fact that for the first three years of her life, I made absolutely no attempt to even approach her (let alone touch her). I just waved from a safe distance and said ‘hi,’ while she transformed into a robust, 16-pound girl. Eventually, she started sitting near me – and then on me – and then she relentlessly smothered me with affection for the next 15 years.

But the end had come and I knew it was time to put her down before her kidneys completely gave out. So I made the appointment with my vet at Centinela Animal Hospital. And as I lay in bed the night before, and I accepted the reality of her death, I got pretty choked up. Eighteen years is a long time. And then I started to laugh through my tears. Because the following idea struck me – which I created as a tribute to Rexall:

I thought about making a second one to give to my vet, who’s a very cool guy with a good sense of humor. But I wasn’t quite sure…and for something like this, you have to be absolutely positive.

Regardless, I’m quite sure Rexall would have laughed. -ML