After 17+ years of faithful mouse-hunting service, our cat Cornelius (Corn) died today.
The day we selected him from a litter of young kittens, he ran away and hid behind a large pile of firewood. We could have simply picked another kitten from that litter, but we really liked Corn, so I moved half a cord of wood to get him. The name Cornelius was actually picked a long time before he was born. One time, Vicky and I drove past Cornelius Ave. in East Nicolaus, CA and agreed that we would call our future cat Cornelius.
Corn loved to sleep in warm places, like on top of my laptop.
Corn certainly wasn't the easiest-going cat. He was a born hunter (on one occasion he took on an adult turkey vulture!) and made sure our place was always rodent and lizard-free. He had a bit of a wild side and would often hide in the grass and jump out. He had little time for staying on our laps; that's just the way he was and always remained. We would always warn kids that came over to be careful--he could strike at any time, as you can see in this video:
Corn in action
Corn was extremely curious and even checked out a few books on HTML5 late in his life.
Everything reminds us of him now.
We buried Cornelius in our backyard today in a spot overlooking the meadow. While we put some flowers down, a beautiful little white butterfly flew by and showed up one more time later. I think he is in a good place now.
"A stone I died and rose again a plant;
A plant I died and rose an animal;
I died an animal and was born a man.
Why should I fear? What have I lost by death?"
—Rumi
Rest in peace, Cornelius. You'll always be in our hearts.
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5 comments:
Hi, I came across your site and wasn’t able to get an email address to contact you about some broken links on your site. Please email me back and I would be happy to point them out to you.
Thanks!
Mandie Hayes
mandie.hayes10@gmail.com
Lieve Peter,
Bedankt voor je post mbt het overlijden van Cornelius. Het was een mooi gevoelig stukje en hij kwam er goed in uit. Ruim 17 jaar was hij bij jullie en je zult hem zeker missen.
Zijn jullie van plan een andere te nemen? Hoe vinden Sean en Rocky het verlies?
Hopelijk gaat het goed met jullie allen. De hartelijke groeten en liefs voor jullie allen van papa.
Hi Peter,
I am sorry I am leaving a comment, I can't find your email. I am writing you in the hopes that you want to participate in an e-book we are writing about ultra runners.
We want to tap into the collective craziness (we mean that as a compliment:-)) of this community to challenge and inspire other people to make their own life an ever-greater creative expression of their own goals and dreams… without limits.
Progress so far: We have currently contacted more than 250 ultra runners and received more than 60 answers.
We would ask you to answer a question about your experience with ultra running.
If you'd like to participate please shoot me an email at dreamit@juliossol.com.
Thanks!
All the best,
Jannick
I enjoyed reading about Cornelius - he sounds like he was an awesome cat.
So sad to hear that. I know the feeling of losing someone you truly love. Rest in peace Cornelius. Provillus
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