A Brief Tribute to Our Furry Friends

In Memory of a Great Feline Named Dexter

‘Sleep baby sleep
The day’s on the run
The wind in the trees
Is talking in tongues’

•         Lyrics from ‘Kitten Lullaby’ by Leonard Cohen

By Doug Draper at Niagara At Large

Posted August 28h, 2021

In an old issue of The New Yorker magazine we’ve kept around our cluttered house, there is this wonderful photograph of Leonard Cohen, taken at his home in 2016, with this heroic looking cat beside him named Hank.

The cat very much reminds members of my family of a wonderful big guy we had the pleasure of loving and living with for 15 years named Dexter, who passed on to that great place for all creatures great and small two years ago this August 28th – just a month after we lost another beloved feline friend named Dylan.

They were both a divine presence in our lives and the comfort we take in their loss is that we gave him a wonderful home, and we are sure, from the love they gave back, that they knew it.

But I don’t want to get maudlin here.

This is more about celebrating the special relationship we enjoy with our furry friends – cats and yes, dogs too – at all times, and especially during times like the past year and a half where we have spent so much of our time shut away in our homes.

Fortunately for our family, we have an energetic feline named Alice, that our daughter Sarah adopted, to help carry us through these times. It is hard to imagine what we would do without here. And by the way, she’s a house cat and loves it that we are spending so much time at home.

There have been plenty of stories in the media about how much cats and dogs mean to people during this plague we are living through, and I recently heard that it is hard now to find a cat or dog for adoption.

I just hope that if and when this COVID plague ends and people go back to places of work outside the home, that these animals are not tossed aside by some of us after all they have given to our lives.

For all they give us, they deserve that forever home.

• Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

To listen to the late great Leonard Cohen sing his song Kitten Lullaby, click on the screen immediately below –

NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.

“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders