Life is Very Transitory

I got an inevitable call tonight that my most beloved Uncle Frank who lives in Ontario and has bred blue tick coonhounds died tonight. He was in his early eighties and had recently been diagnosed with brain and lung cancer and I think they had found some in a couple other places as well. He's smoked Export unfiltered cigarettes his whole life and has lived absolutely unrepentently and unabashadedly by his own terms. I come by my bad habits and poor attitudes naturally.

I've talked about him in several places on the blog before - once when I went on vacation to Ontario, and once when I was talking about hounds - he has totally affected me, and I am going to miss him. It is one of the greatest regrets of my life that I never got to go hunting with him - even though I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have killed anything when we went on our trip. But I know I would've learned a lot of things other than how to kill animals.

He lived a long life though and he lived it on his own terms until the end. He took care of his dogs the way he wanted and in the end when he couldn't take care of them he made arrangements for them - except for a couple weeks when my Mom had to put his rubber boots on and go out and feed them every day with her house coat on when he was in the hospital before the person who was taking over ownership could pick them up (I wish I would've been there to take pictures of that!)

So really - it was a life lived well. Life is transitory. We are all going to die. We can only hope that we do it like Uncle Frank did - in our mid 80's - cranky, on our own terms, still smoking, with people around to clean up the mess behind us.

Now Buttercup dying on the other hand. THAT is not going to be dealt with very well. I don't know HOW I'm going to live through that. Truly.

This is Buttercup buzzing Teddy late today. How can you live through the passing of something that emits this kind of joy?