I Loved This by Bess Winter
Richard felt the life go out of Mildred. He felt her head loll against his chest and felt the last padding of her paw against his stubbled chin. He felt her take in her final breath. He felt her arch her delicate back and her twitching tail as if she was in something like pain. And then he felt another sensation: her soul peeling away from her body, like layers of tissue being pulled apart until the final layer was thin and translucent, not of any earthly use at all.
Finally he was clutching the still-warm corpse of a cat. In her last moments, Mildred had soiled his work shirt and tie; they reeked of ammonia. Her empty gaze was fixed on a point that might have been the edge of his shoulder but he’d never know for sure. This is what he was thinking as he lowered Mildred onto her favorite blanket, wrapped her, rested his hand on her stiffening body and felt, through the molasses of his sadness, that maybe he’d been remiss right at the end. That he could have said something soothing. That he could have eased her suffering somehow, if she’d suffered. As it was, he’d just clung to her. As it was, he’d just watched her die…..
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