Wednesday 25 August 2010

Interludes from Real Life

A friend of mine told me the other day about one of her cats having to be put down, and the subsequent and somewhat delicate task of explaining this turn of events to her young daughter.

The child took it pretty well, considering, and had that direct way of looking at the situation that the pre-adolescent often does, asking blunt questions along the lines of 'can I come to the vet's?'. But then it got a little trickier. Having lost one cat, it naturally occurred to her to worry about the other.

'Is Schrodinger alright?'

Of course, the problem is, with a name like that, it's hard to be sure.

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True story.

3 comments:

VM said...

Reminds me of a friend who bought his kids some rabbits. And a dog. The idea was to teach them about the horrible beauty of nature and the circle of life.

He's pretty lucky to still have access one weekend a month after the kids were traumatized by watching a baby bunny rabbit get whacked to death against a retaining wall by a King Charles spaniel.

Christie Malry said...

On the other hand, the lesson was a success. So who is the real victim here? Is it the bunny, who died? Is it your friend? Or, is it life itself, whose vicissitudes have been exposed to the cold light of day?

VM said...

We all lose, Tide, we all lose. Those scared, bloodied and traumatized children grow up Objectivist.