As a final comment in relation to my species, let’s talk about the topic of “burying.” Upon our death, it would be a nice gesture on your part to offer us at least a short and proper ceremony, along with a dignified resting place for our Earthly remains.
I don’t think that’s always done, for reasons I’m not sure about, but if our presence in your homes has meant anything at all to you and hopefully made your lives happier, a heartfelt “final goodbye” would be very thoughtful of you.
On the other hand, I also know that many of you do feel a great emotional loss when we let out our last meow. Please know that your eternal love will be with us forever.
I recognize that this is a very personal kind of thing and I don’t want to interfere with your customs. But you should also know that if one of our close and much loved human friends were suddenly not with us anymore, without a doubt we would suffer deeply, and for a very long time.
You see, when we spend a significant amount of years living in a human environment, we tend to go through a process of social adaptation. We retain our natural instinctive and general cat-like characteristics, but simultaneously, we take on certain lifestyle aspects of our caretakers. These include things like some weekly morning routines, periods of more activity or rest, and so on.
Even more dramatically, our caretakers often play the role of a surrogate mother if we are with you from the time of our birth or the first few months of our lives, and especially if we have been separated from our feline family.
I hope that helps you understand what a key factor you may be in our lives. This is something that goes far beyond a relationship of food and shelter.
And many of you have similar thoughts and emotions regarding the role we play in your lives too, right? We are quite different from you in many ways, but that is no reason to think that our mutually friendly and caring feelings should be affected.
Cats and humans. What a wonderful combination that is. You know, this might be an inter-species union at its very best! What do you think?
And when death do us part, life will never be the same again for those left behind. But the warm, happy memories will remain. And our love will be eternal.