St. Francis, of LaPine

This is a hard blip to write, and part of it needs to be accompanied by music. Yesterday (July 24) after a trip to LaPine, we saw a sign for the LaPine Pioneer Cemetery. Both of us being cemetery fans, we followed the directions - east, out through the lodgepole pine and sage. What we found was the most dry, desolate...I want to say God-forsaken piece of high desert real estate ever (but after our visit, I don't think it was God-forsaken). But dry and desolate...yes, indeed.

When we pulled up to the burial pavilion in the middle of the cemetery (that structure in the background of this picture), we found a cat in the middle of it. At first we thought it was dead. Its head was down, it didn't move. I had to look closely to see a faint sign of breathing. It flicked its ear, and we knew it was alive. We were very alarmed as to what to do... here was a cat in obvious distress. The temperature outside was in the mid 90s, and this was dry, Central Oregon. Finally, the cat realized I hovered above it. It looked up at me with rheumy eyes - green and fogged. When I stepped closer it ran across the cemetery road to behind some sage. It was clearly not doing well, and when it stopped, it howled and meowed. It was a big tabby, but we couldn't tell its age. We thought, how odd that this poor animal had led itself to a cemetery to die. What led up to these circumstances, we have no idea.

Now rescuing a distressed cat is a different business than rescuing a distressed dog. So all we could do was leave it some water, and a bit of dog food. We checked with some local pet people - a vet, and a dog groomer and boarder, and we were told someone would check on it.

This morning, we decided we would drive out to the LaPine Community Cemetery, some 18 miles or so from our place in Sunriver, and take it some food and water in the off chance it was still alive. I threw in a shovel....in case other circumstances prevailed. We held out good hope that it had survived the night, and that reports of missing cats in the area might point to a possible owner.

Here is the soundtrack that needs to accompany this, right here.

We drove the miles in near silence, the temperatures climbing into the mid 90s. After the two mile drive down the dusty side road, we arrived. We pulled up to the burial pavilion, and I looked. The food was nearly gone, and the water dish was turned over. But no cat.

And then Tom said, "Oh...there it is. It didn't make it." Under a pine 30 feet from where we last saw it, the cat's body rested. I checked it...no breathing. It was indeed gone.

Both of us felt the defeat and loss of this animal we had no connection to. What led us to this spot, a place this cat had come to die? If we had been there a day or two previously we could have possibly saved it. Was it drawn there as a place of death? We had held out hope that we could save it, that it could somehow redeem with its days left on earth all of the suffering it had endured. It was not to be.

I buried the kitty between two Ponderosa pines a few feet from where we found it. Tom "borrowed" a painted butterfly and flowers from a nearby grave and placed it over the high desert soil. Kirby watched from a respectable distance.

The oppressive heat beat down, the probable heat that killed this wandering feline. But I looked around...the light west breezes blew, the pine trees, swayed, stellar blue jays squawked from the limbs above, butterflies skittered with wild abandon through the sage, pine, and brush. Despite our feeling of loss, I had to acknowledge the life that blew through and around this place. We didn't even know this cat...what led us to it?

We drove the 30 miles or so back to Bend in near silence, our thoughts on the pitiful scene of the last couple of days. I had no plausible answers as to why our paths had crossed with this dying cat. And then this thought: We honored this life form with hope and effort, and when the hope for a continued life died out, we placed it between two pines, a cemetery cat spirit for the pioneers of this desolate land, and honored it as it might have never been honored before. All life needs honoring. May this tabby keep these pioneers good company.

Finally, a prayer from St. Francis of Assisi. Sometimes I feel that we are here to carry out his work:

Prayer of Saint Francis for Animals
God Our Heavenly Father,
You created the world
to serve humanity's needs
and to lead them to You.
By our own fault
we have lost the beautiful relationship
which we once had with all your creation.
Help us to see
that by restoring our relationship with You
we will also restore it
with all Your creation.
Give us the grace
to see all animals as gifts from You
and to treat them with respect
for they are Your creation.

We pray for all animals
who are suffering as a result of our neglect.
May the order You originally established
be once again restored to the whole world
through the intercession of the Glorious Virgin Mary,
the prayers of Saint Francis
and the merits of Your Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ
Who lives and reigns with You
now and forever. Amen.