RON HENGGELER |
I got home from work late tonight and my little six pound friend Lucius had finally died. Lucius was a pedigree sphinx, a rare hairless cat. He was seventeen years old. For the past two months his health was in a long slow spiraling state of decline. Every time he seemed to be reaching the End, another one of his nine lives would show up at the door with luggage, move in, and reanimate him. Time and again it filled me with a renewed hope for his recovery.
Lucius, like all cats, loved to be in the warm sunlight. Many years ago I made him a small private patio outside a southern window overlooking our backyard garden. On sunny days, with the air scented from the nearby jasmine, honeysuckle, and lemon blossoms, he would spend the whole day out on his patio, much of the time sleeping under a towel. And many times, while he lay hidden under the towel, I was amused to see slight movements going on beneath, showing me that that he wasn’t sleeping. . . he was ‘watching the birds’ by following their sounds of flight and song, even though he couldn’t see them through the fabric.
I’ll bury him tomorrow in that backyard garden filled with lively birds, bright flowers, cedar, lemon, and redwood trees. As his burial shroud, I’ve wrapped him with proper dignity in an old San Francisco flag. Placing him in the middle of the flag, his body covering the body of the Phoenix, he’s acquired for a moment, the wings of that unique, mystical bird. . . the mythological creature that symbolizes so perfectly, the remarkable history of San Francisco beginning with the epic California Gold Rush. Into those folded Phoenix wings, Lucius will now rest in the gentle peace of our lush and sunny backyard garden.
As a kitten he was given the very distinguished name of. . . Lucius Beebe.
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Lucius Morris Beebe (December 9, 1902 – February 4, 1966), was an American author, gourmand, photographer, railroad historian, journalist, and syndicated columnist. Some portions of my text above were respectfully taken from, Lucius Beebe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and, the dust-jacket cover of The BIG SPENDERS by Lucius Beebe, published by Doubleday & Company, Inc. in 1966. For photographs of Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, and for more information on these interesting, important, and colorful individuals, who as a couple, contributed so much to the literary and photographic world of the American West, and America’s Railroad History, I recommend you visit these sites. |
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