Instructions for digging a grave for a cat

Fold your best friend up on the armchair in a restful position. All is at peace. There is still heat in his body. He may as well be sleeping.

Ten steps takes you through the kitchen. Pass the crying women and the ones who have no right to bear witness. Five more steps. Turn right. Three steps. Open the door. Enter the blazing day.

Take up that shovel and break the Earth open. Dig the blade deep in, turn it, soften it up and let the hard baked ground crumble and pull out the shovel with a load of earth atop it. Dump the earth to one side.

Do it again, and again, and again. Sweat takes your mind off the corpse that formerly belonged to something that meant a everything to you. Feel the sweat pouring down your face and your back as you rip up the ground. Dig the hole wider and deeper. Dig and dig and sweat and sweat.

Push that shovel into the hard earth until it won’t go any further. Then keep pushing. Feel the skin on your hands rip away as you pummel the rock. Hit the rock over and over and over again. Feel it break before your onslaught. Bleed and do it again.

Hammer the earth with your fury. Smash at the foundations of the house with the shovel, feel it become dust as your skin tears and your bones jar against one another and your sweat mingles with the blood and dust. Kill that earth, destroy it as it has destroyed your friend. Dig it wide and deep and sweat and bleed. Throw the shovel aside.

Turn around, walk back in through the door, leaving it ajar behind you. Three steps. Turn left. Five steps, past the ones who have no right to bear witness. Ten more to the body of your friend.

Part him from the weeping woman. Remove his collar and place it to one side. Take up a blue blanket and sling it over your shoulder. Pick up your friend and turn around.

Ten steps, five, a right turn and three more into the day. Lay the blanket on the hot ground next to the grave. All warmth has gone out of your friend – therefore let the wounded earth spare some for him. Lay him upon the blanket in a restful pose. Lay his items about him so he may have them in whatever afterlife there may be. Fold the blanket over that face you loved. Fold the blanket under him, covering him completely. Wrap him one more time.

Lay him in the hole. Take up the shovel and cover him with the hateful earth. Pile the ground high over him in a mound so that none will step on or over him. Throw the shovel aside once more.

To the left is a large rock that has lain in the ground for some time. Go to it and tear it up, brushing up the scum on the underside. The hard part is over – lay this rock upright at the head of the grave. Write his name on the rock. His part is done.

Gather unworthy flowers and place them on his grave. Do this again whenever the flowers shrivel. This is a meaningless and empty gesture that means more to you than the cat. His part is done, was done long before these flowers first bloomed.