As you know, this blog is anonymized with silly names replacing real names for the most part, and that includes Piffles. I fretted that it would be disrespectful to use this name given the circumstances. I wondered if I should write about this at all.
When I asked him last fall if I could write about our adventures in Vegas he said, "Write anything you want." What about pictures? "Post anything you want."
That was my cousin. Honest, open, generous, non-judgemental.
So, I did write about Piffles and post some photos, and I decided that it's appropriate to talk about him here, because this blog does intersect with real life and long time readers will know that occasionally serious life events are discussed.
Piffles and I shared a love for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and talked regularly to discuss the latest game. If you are wondering where the name Piffles comes from, it's an homage to legendary pilot and Roughriders quarterback Piffles Taylor. I hope my cousin was tickled when I chose that name.
I'm embarking on my latest solo adventure to Las Vegas, and for the first time ever, I feel flat about it. It was just a couple of days ago that I did a 30 hour trip to say goodbye and support family. One day to turn around, and I'm off again.
Perhaps this vacation is just the tonic I need now, but it was in Vegas that I last saw Piffles, and I will be thinking about him and his family now, over the trip, and always.
A never-ending tank of gas, and smooth clear skies my friend.
My condolences!
ReplyDeleteSad news indeed. May he RIP.
ReplyDeleteFlusher, really sorry for your loss.
ReplyDeleteSorry for your loss Flusher.
ReplyDeleteFlusher, my sympathies for your loss. In honor of Piffles, please accept this poem (which I first heard as a child some 50+ years ago - and have always remembered)
ReplyDeleteHigh Flight
John Gillespie Magee, Jr
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
So, so sorry. I've heard that pets never live long enough, and relatives live too long. Chippy fit that mold, but Piffles certainly didn't. My sympathies to Ronco and the rest of the Flusher family.
ReplyDelete