Flash Post 237!

Why did you not tell me about Julie’s demise?

Because I didn’t want you to start the new year on a sad note.

What sad note? You tell me everything–don’t you? I have always been your confidante. Why then did you hold this one back from me? After the letter she wrote to me, you should have shared the news with me.

I’m sorry, Button.

She must have seen this coming; which is why she wrote me that letter.

At 18 years, she was very frail, was almost totally blind and after maggots attacked the crater on her back repeatedly, she was in a very unpredictable state of health where she would be unwell most days yet show marginal improvement on certain days.  We realised it was only a matter of time before she would pass away and all of us tried to do whatever little we could to take care of her and make the last few days of her life a little special. A little magical. But her failing health took its toll and she breathed her last at the Welfare of Stray Dogs where she’d been shifted.

Why does death always make us sad. Sometimes, even bitter? It’s only natural that death will follow life. Does life trail death? Do you believe in reincarnation?

I am stuck somewhere in the middle. I’d like to believe that life’s a cycle; that we exist and then we don’t and again we do.

That means you too believe that death is not final.

I hope to find Julie and all our other strays who have passed into, perhaps, another life and take care of them there too.