The Heart Of A Lion! - A Eulogy

Yin died tonight at about 8:30. For several days she has done little but lie there breathing, with that heart of a lion pumping. She was in Carmen's lap when it finally stopped.


The vet told us when we rescued her and her brother that they were damaged goods and we shouldn't expect them to live longer than three or four years. Yang died two and a half years ago at nine years old, and Yin made it to eleven and a half. She was always an inspiration.


At four weeks old when they were dumped by a breeder, they would both fit in the palm of my hand. After they were nursed back to health, they were regular kittens, into everything, exploring everywhere. Yin had no pupils in her eyes so we knew she was blind, but she was determined to go wherever Yang went, climbing up on chairs, desks, sinks and dressers. She used to run down the hall, turn into the bedroom and leap onto the bed - until we moved the bed. After that she would never jump up on anything unless she could feel the top of it with her front paws. She would jump down off of anything, though, trusting that the floor would always be there. She landed in a waste basket or two, but mostly that procedure worked. For that reason, we were sure to always close the lid on the toilet - and were aghast when a visitor would leave it open.

She had a mental map in her head at all times and in all places we lived - she lived in five houses with us - and changed the map when the furniture moved. If she heard us talking about taking her to the vet, she could hide faster and more bafflingly than any other cat we've had.


When she was young we had a bent wood rocking chair. We're not sure how it got started, but she had a frequent game going where she climbed up into the chair, ran up the back so it rocked down and up and down and up, until it stopped, then she would run back down to the seat and back up the back to ride the ride again, sometimes eight or ten times before she moved on to some other entertainment.


In Orlando our back pool deck was completely fenced in, so one day we let Yin and Yang outside to explore and sniff and feel the sunshine. For about a half hour it was paradise. They circled the pool, smelled the bushes, swatted at lizards and rolled around in the sunshine. Then they came on back around, looking like they were ready to go inside. I got up to open the door, and my chair made a loud scraping noise. Yin bolted away from the sound - directly into the pool! Carmen jumped in after her, grabbed her and tried to hand her to me - a sopping wet furry buzz saw of claws! We were both bleeding from several wounds by the time we got her calmed down and dried off. The next time she went outside was in the walled-in pool-free back yard in Albuquerque.

She saw us through Simply Organized, Inc., Lesley University, Andover Newton Theological School, the Albuquerque internship and the beginning of the Meadville ministry. I guess her work was done. We shall sorely miss her.