My cat Tenchi died yesterday. He just dropped dead. One minute my husband was petting him in the hall, then next, I walked into the kitchen and found him laying on his side, as though he ware having a little rest, except his tongue was hanging out and his eyes were staring off into infinity. He was only three years old. He was not sick or injured. The vet said it could have been an embolism or an aneurism. This is my first personal encounter with death.

The brown of the earth
And the bright white of heaven
Slept on the front porch