The death of innocents

For those out there who have never had a dog or cat as a pet for a long period of time, what I am about to share may seem overly dramatic. Yet, one hopefully realizes that these blessed creatures become like little children to us. They, like little children, need our focused attention and caring in order to survive.

So it was with this writer’s 19-year and 5-month old kitty. We adopted her as a 6-month-old, knowing that she had but one kidney. They warned us that she “may not live as long as a normal cat.” Alas, when we looked at her exceptionally beautiful face, sitting alone in that cage, we literally melted!

The joy that little Princess (and we treated her as one) gave to us was unbelievable. She was a ‘lap cat ‘who loved to sit and sleep on my lap whenever I sat on my favorite recliner. She was also a ‘licky kitty ‘who loved to demonstrate such affection. She slept in our bed each night, and led my wife into the kitchen each AM for her breakfast . . . only the best cat foods did she get as well.

Being that we both worked mostly from home, Princess was around us basically 24/7. So, as the years progressed, and she regressed with feeblemindedness and urinary problems, we knew the end was approaching. This past Monday, at 2:30 AM, we awoke to see her struggling on the floor of our bedroom. She apparently had a stroke and lost the use of her hind legs. She actually must have crawled from the living room into our bedroom to be near to the only two people she needed and loved. She then did something quite unlike her: a terrible moaning sound of distress that we never heard before.

My wife, who just a day before had vowed to never have Princess euthanized, yelled out for me to call the emergency pet clinic. “We have to put her down “, she cried! An hour later, our little angel was dead. At 3:30 in the morning, in some dark and lonely parking lot, the two of us sobbed like never before. I never cried like this when either of my two parents had died. Two days later, we cry still . . . and cannot seem to stop.

From 2006–2009, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimated that close to 100 young children had been killed by US drone attacks. Many more scores of children have been maimed . . . some for life!

The Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute believes that of the 193 drone attacks in Pakistan alone (under Mr. Obama, by the way) over 90% of those killed have been civilians. Ditto that for what drones have been doing in Yemen as well.

Imagine raising a young child with all your love and attention, and then seeing him or her lying dead after some drone missile (supposedly) missed its mark. Imagine seeing those little limbs broken off like reeds in a swamp, and the blood spilling out like water from a faucet. And the fools, who run our nation, and those who follow their lead, cannot understand why ‘They hate us’?

When we illegally and immorally invaded Iraq that fateful day of March 19, 2003, do you remember how the anchors on CNN, Fox, MSNBC . . . all the networks, were almost cheerleading our obscene Shock and Awe air campaign? How many Iraqi children, the ones who up until that day were lucky to survive our indecent sanctions program, lay dead after the smart bombs weren’t so smart? To the war criminals in the Bush cabal, they were collateral damage, as if they were insurance adjusters after a hurricane. Shame on all of them!

The love for a helpless child or pet, to this writer, carries the same weight. They are helpless and need our devotion. Can any of you reading this put yourself in the shoes of a mother who just lost her young son or daughter to such devastation? Perhaps if you recall the day your cherished old pet passed away, it will help you to gather the sympathy for the victims of insane foreign policy. Maybe.

Philip a farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a free lance columnist (found on TheSleuthJournal.com, Worldnewstrust.com, The Intrepid Report ,Nation of Change, The Peoples Voice, Information Clearing house, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice and many other sites worldwide). Philip works as an environmental products sales rep and has been an activist leader since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25%. Philip can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.