The end

Yes this is a sunrise photograph, but for those who have not read my last two blips, my cat was ill. This sunrise marked the beginning of the last day of his beautiful life. A quick snatch with my G9 with an almost flat battery. The grain has been introduced.

I woke at 2am today, Yeltsin (my cat) was not with me. That had to mean trouble. I went searching for him in the house and could not locate him. He made his way down the stairs gingerly (not briskly as he had the day before), and vomited, as I had seen a week before. He was finally giving me the sign, the approval that enough was enough. It was only early and the vet would not open for some time. He went and hid himself away, under a bed, and really could not muster a purr for me.

I made myself go to running, to get out of the house, and I managed to capture this amazing sunrise from Coolum. It had rained and rained for days, yet here was this beautiful start to the day. I took my two dogs to the beach for a run and as we headed back in the car the most spectacular rainbow presented itself to me, in a minute it had disappeared from view, but for me it was a sign that I was making the right choices for Yeltsin today.

And so it was arranged, it would all end at 10.30am, his pain and my turmoil. As I waited at the vet, REM's Everybody Hurts played on the radio. Music provokes such emotion in me. A fitting song, one of my favourites, and then it was to be goodbye. So peaceful he was, lying there, no longer in pain. A shadow of his former self.

My favourite cat was gone. The "cat that I would clone" if I ethically believed in such things. The irreplaceable cat. The pet everyone has had at some stage in their life. But that sunrise and that rainbow reminded me that there will be beauty and joy again tomorrow. It is that search for beauty in everything that inspires my photography. Here's to another blip.