the lion sleeps tonight

had to put Aslan (our first cat) to sleep last night. got home from a dinner with my parents, and he was stretched out on my office floor, howling intermittently. after calls to the emergency vet clinic and goodbyes to Colin and Ronni, i drove him to the clinic, cried, prayed, petted him, signed some papers, turned over my i.d. and credit card, told him i loved him, gave him a final rub on the head, and said good bye. more attached to that ambitiously named cat than i ever expected to be. he sure didn't go out of his way to make friends outside the immediate family, but he was a blessing to us.

brought Aslan home from the humane society eleven years ago after graduating from college, on Ronni's encouragement (we were dating at the time, and a guy will go to great lengths to impress a pretty girl). he couldn't stand near me without purring loudly and nuzzling me, behavior that continued for the rest of his life. caught on fire once (man, cat hair sure does stink), had one emergency surgery. other than that, didn't really make the news much. weird not having to fend him off from my cereal bowl as i ate this morning, though. now i'm wondering about pets and heaven and all those things (no doubt inspired by Colin's penetrating questions). as with most things, just have to let Jesus sort it all out, i suppose. good thing He's good.