We bury our little Pistol-Yero, then celebrate Mother's Day

Readers who were with me then will recall that my ornery, sweet, loving, little buddy, Pistol-Yero, died unexpectedly while I was in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. I had wanted to bury him after I returned, but the snow was so deep, the ground so frozen and Melanie was working up north, would not be home for a month and it seemed that everybody should be here.

The snow is melted now. Melanie is back and everyone was coming out to the house Sunday. There is still a lot of frost in the upper layers of ground, but Rex is strong and so, using picaxe and shovel, he punched through it.

Muzzy and Akiak engaged in a long running contest to see who could keep the stick the longest.

In respect for the Navajo beliefs of their mother, Jobe, Kalib and Lynxton could not come near the body of Pistol-Yero and would have to stay inside for the funeral and burial.

It may be a small hole, but given the conditions of the earth here, it took a long time to dig - probably close to an hour. Charlie arrived and spelled Rex for bit. Akiak seemed to dominate the stick game.

I unwrapped Pistol-Yero, put him on a blanket that he had enjoyed in life and brushed his fur. Lisa came out as I finished and wanted to see him.

I then carried him to the back. Except for Lavina and the boys, everybody gathered around for the viewing and final pets.

Margie came out a little late, as she had been helping Lavina with the boys.

Then we headed toward the far reaches of the backyard, where, in the course of 30 years, we have buried a good many of our fur-clad family members - because that's what they are - family members.

Everyone told a favorite story about Pistol-Yero. Margie is talking here. She is saying how she always wanted to keep him off the bed and especially the pillows, but he always got on the bed and pillows anyway and she came to know that he really liked to have a nice, neat, clean bed and pillow to lie on. She also noted how Pistol had usually stayed away from her, because he always liked to hang with me and she would do things like chase him off of beds and pillows, but there were a few times when she had been sitting on the couch and he came to her and sat on her lap and let her pet him as he purred and that was special.

Melanie took her turn filling in the hole - first we did it by hand, then by shovel.

And finally, covered it with stones. Rex and Charlie had dug up this boulder during one of my forays into the house. Caleb placed it on the grave and we piled the smaller stones around it.

Lisa disappeared and then reappeared, carrying three blossoms from a Mother's Day bouquet Melanie had bought for her mom.

Rest in peace, sweet little Pistol-Yero... life is not the same around here without you. You would probably be sitting between me and my computer screen, right now, as I made a regular post about Mother's Day.

We then headed back up to the house. The boys came out and set a tire to rolling.

Kalib set the tire to rolling again as Lavina cooked. He scored a direct hit and knocked Rex down.

Kalib was very pleased, so he rolled the tire back up to the porch to see if he could down Uncle Rex again. He would succeed.

Jobe raked the house.

Corn, mushrooms and peppers were added to the grill. Soon, we would feast in celebration of Margie and Lavina; in celebration of mothers.

Chicago now sleeps where Pistol-Yero once did; the big thaw seems to have begun

When I was in India, I wrote about how Pistol-Yero would curl up and sleep right by my head each night. Chicago would normally sleep somewhere near my legs. Jimmy would tend to sleep right on top of me, although he would shift around a bit throughout the night.

I have been home for two nights now and everytime I have woken up, I have found my nose practically buried in Chicago's fur. With Pistol-Yero gone, she has moved to the head of the bed - right by my head.

Chicago never liked Pistol much. She would often hiss at him. Pistol seemed to enjoy that. In fact, he would often encourage her to hiss at him. She never figured that out.

Today, I had to put Pistol in Jacob and Lavina's freezer until we can get his grave dug, because we can't count on the weather to keep him frozen anymore.

That hurt.

It seems I must have brought some of that heat from India back to Wasilla with me. It is still fairly cool in the mornings when everything is frozen good and solid, but by late afternoon today the temperature had climbed to 38 F (3C). Snow was melting like crazy.

So it seems breakup is underway. Of course, it is still a little dangerous to say something like that. Next week, Wasilla could go right back into the deep freeze, where it seemed to be the whole time I was gone.

I kind of doubt that it will, but there have been past years when I kind of doubted and it did anyway.

There is no guarantee yet, but there are signs I might be able to make it back to the Arctic Slope soon. I can guarantee you that even though it will definitely be spring there, too, it will none-the-less be still be what most people in most places would call deep freeze.

It will be good to go back. Very good.

I hope it actually happens.

Now, it feels to me like the impact of my jet lag is getting worse, not better. I can hardly keep my eyes open. I can hardly type. It is only 10:30 PM, very early for me, but maybe I will go to bed soon. Then I will probably wake up at 2:30 AM or so.

That's what's been happening.

I think this blog will be a lazy blog for two or three or four more days to come, yet.