Just Like Yoda

On a morning in which I was taking my cat, Bennie, to the vet for a check up, my daughter wonders aloud to me why the cat is getting so upset about getting in the travel crate.

“Well”, I explain to her, “the cat knows she is going to the vet for a check up. And maybe she is worried that she won’t be coming home.”

“Why would she not be coming home?” She questions.

“Well, maybe she knows that when pets are old or sick, they go to the vet and do not come home. Maybe she is thinking about Huffy.” Huffy being our recently deceased cat, who did not come home from a pet visit after a particularly aggressive cancer.

“Why do they not come home?” Again, she questions.

“When a pet is really old, or in a lot of pain, or really sick, sometimes the decision is made to put the pet to sleep. That way they can die in their sleep peacefully and not feel sick anymore.”

She took this in for a moment, looking at me and asked, “Did Pop Pop die in his sleep?”

“Yes, sweetie. Pop Pop died in his sleep.”

Again, she thinks about this for a second and makes an audibly sad sigh before she quietly says…

“Just like Yoda.”

She is definitely my daughter.