My dear Yin-Yang is gone forever

My dear little old guy, Yin-Yang, is gone to the Great Hunting Prairies... He was a good cat, and I hope that the Great Spirit will give him a lot of mice to catch...

He was 15 years old, and life must forcibly end to make place to new life. Therefore, I must accept it. But it is so hard... I confess that grief is not just for the one who goes, although it's mainly for him; but it is also for all the moments, experiences and parts of our common history who are gone with him forever. I started "to be owned" by Yin-Yang when he was two months old. We lived in Madrid, Spain, and I went with my late wife to a pet-shop to buy a couple of hamsters for my three-year-old son, and I saw this black kitten, full of life, putting his little paw out of the cage and literally calling me: 'hey, you, yes, you, the big guy... I want you!" I never had a cat before in my life, I had dogs, fishes, sparrows, birds, turtles and even a monkey, as pets, but never a cat.

Yin-Yang taught me everything about cats, but also a lot of things about life. He clearly tamed me and I learned to love these incredible, beautiful, lovely creatures who are the felines. He grew up together with Mayec, my son, now 18 years old, and he told me just some weeks ago that he couldn't remember "the time before Yin-Yang", he always was a part of his life and his games.

Our little black guy went with us everywhere: in vacations through half Spain, in cars, in planes, to my Canary Islands... He is possibly one of the rare housecats who have been photographed during a picnic in Teide National Park, in Tenerife... When we moved to Belgium, he came along with us, sharing our adventurous trip to the North...

Now he is gone. I am not a believer, although I'm sure (I need to believe?) that he is now young again, hunting mice like he used to do in our week-end cottage in the Sierra of Madrid, purring in delight while he receives all the love of Beatrix, Mayec's mother, who is also gone...

I have asked for my little one to be incinerated. I want to take him back once our Spain. He loved so much the sun, and it is so rainy here in Belgium. He well deserves it, he was a good cat...

In Loving Memory of Yin-Yang

Copyright © Julio N. Rancel
October 31, 1998