Dear Gianfranco:The rest of the letter is in this month's Harper's Magazine.
Just after I finished writing you and was putting the letter in the envelope Mary came down from the Torre and said, “Something terrible has happened to Willie.” I went out and found Willie with both his right legs broken: one at the hip, the other below the knee. A car must have run over him or somebody hit him with a club. He had come all the way home on the two feet of one side. It was a multiple compound fracture with much dirt in the wound and fragments protruding. But he purred and seemed sure that I could fix it.
I had RenĂ© get a bowl of milk for him and RenĂ© held him and caressed him and Willie was drinking the milk while I shot him through the head. I don’t think he could have suffered and the nerves had been crushed so his legs had not begun to really hurt. Monstruo wished to shoot him for me, but I could not delegate the responsibility or leave a chance of Will knowing anybody was killing him...
Have had to shoot people but never anyone I knew and loved for eleven years. Nor anyone that purred with two broken legs.
15 July 2012
Ernest Hemingway has to put down one of his cats
From a February 22, 1953, letter from Ernest Hemingway
to his close friend Gianfranco Ivancich...
This posting made me track down my unsuspecting cat for a thorough cuddle.
ReplyDeleteThe full letter is behind Harper's paywall.
ReplyDeleteIn that case, you may need to go without it. I can't as a consciencious blogger harvest entire contents from other sites.
DeleteSeveral years ago I took my beloved Brandy to the vet. The vet's diagnosis and subsequent advice led to her being put down. While carrying her body to the car and during the drive home I realized that something profoundly wrong had occurred. I sensed that I had failed her. I vowed that never again would I hire a stranger to do what should properly be done by me. If I love them and they me I owe them nothing less than this final act of love. It is a most difficult thing to do. I know how Hemingway must have felt.
ReplyDeleteYou can have a vet come to your house, some make house calls. They can give your pet a sedative and the cats falls asleep. The second shot ends their life.
ReplyDeleteI'm sitting next to a very sick elderly cat as I write this. Honestly.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that you've failed your cat for not killing it just stuns me. Ensuring that a pet dies comfortably is an act of love, but sitting around thinking about how you'll shoot it is just horrifying. Then you call it an act of love? Just sick.
Ensuring that a pet dies comfortably is an act of love, but sitting around thinking about how you'll ensure it dies comfortably is just horrifying?
ReplyDeleteYou might want to spend some time thinking about this.
I understand what he went through. This weekend my cat passed away from a sudden worsening of an otherwise well managed kidney ailment. As he lost all will to live over the last few days, despite our best efforts, we opted to put him to sleep. He was with us for 13 very good years and we wish him well, wherever he is. Farewells are never easy.
ReplyDeleteThis is so sad -even though it was so long ago. Our dog was hit by a car Thursday, and the damage, though confined to the leg, was so bad her leg was amputated Friday. This brave little border collie never whined or cried at all, just looked at us with those trusting eyes. I was very scared of possible internal injuries, so we dodged a bullet there. Now she's tentatively learning how to climb stairs and jump in the car, even in pain.
ReplyDeleteSome cats purr when they are ill, stressed, or in pain. There's a theory that purring releases a calming hormone. Cats are really interesting animals.
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