From Cios to Rossini..
the history of how my Angel Cios took care of me before she left for the Rainbow
Bridge.
In order to be clear I have to write just two sentences about the past: Cios was born when I lived with my ex companion, Franco, and she also had her four
kitties in his house. When we separated, I took Ketchup and Cios with me, and he kept two of her kids, Grigio and Kobi. He is living on the countryside about 2 hrs from me, and we still meet from time to time and talk a lot about our animals.
Kobi has fathered several kittys over the last few years
and three months again had 3 little ones from Winnie, another cat living with Franco
(here is a
picture of the two of them). One of the kitties is red and white, and Franco decided immediately to keep it for himself while the other two
are soon to be adopted by new parents. He named the kitty Rossini, because of his colour (rosso=red in italian) and because of his strong voice (Rossini was an opera composer of the last century).
Back to Cios. The evening she passed I had visited her in the vet clinic a few hours before and even if they told me they'd try anything to keep her alive, I already had felt her slipping away.
Around 10 pm I felt a heavier and heavier anguish in my heart, I had called the
clinic again and they told me they had to give her a blood transfusion but they
still hoped she'd be ok.
I tried to light a candle for her, but it would not light, the matches would go
out, or the wick would not take. And that is where I felt that she really was
ready to leave her body. So I closed my eyes and told her, that I would light
this candle in order to lighten her way towards the Rainbow Bridge. And when I
tried again, the candle lit immediately.
I just tried to be near her spirit, because I felt that I would not be able to
reach the place where she was dying, it was more than an hour away.
And it was listening to a song I like very much, that I felt Cios was finishing her last battle. The aria is the main song of the principal female hero
of the opera "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" , Rosina, where she sings about her own character: sweet and dear, soft and kind.. as long as nobody crosses her the wrong way, because then she would become a terrible creature, with no regards for anyone. I had heard that aria many times and also sung it myself, but for the first time I noticed how every word in it applied exactly to Cios, so sweet and loving but a lioness when treated wrong. Towards the end of the song my tears started to run and run, and that was the moment when the phone rang with the terrible news.
Over the next hours I felt very confused and shocked.
I had already called Franco telling him about Cios's death because I know he loved her nearly as much as I did. In fact, he started crying on the phone too when he heard the news, so we didn't talk any more.
I lighted all the candles I had in my home and was just sitting there quietly, trying to be with Cios on her way to the Bridge.
And then for a moment I really felt her, I saw her beautiful face in the light, going farther and farther away. But before she disappeared, the
color of her fur suddenly changed to orange-red, and the face became much rounder. And this
rested impressed in my mind, when I didn't see her anymore.
Then a thought crossed my mind.
The aria I was listening to while she was passing was written by.. the composer Rossini.
Her little nephew is orange-red and is called Rossini.
The aria is sung by Rosina, and I often called Cios "Ciosina" so: Ciosina->Rosina->Rossini (male version).
Can this be a coincidence? I don't think so. So I called Franco again, and told him about what had happened.
He was very, very moved and told me that somehow he had sensed that this little kitty had something to do with Cios, and for that reason he had decided to keep it, even if he really didn't want another cat (he already has about 10 plus 3 big dogs).
He said that if I wanted, Rossini was mine, and he would be very happy to know him to live with me.
At first I was overwhelmed and asked him for some time, I just didn't know if I could bring a new cat in my house so soon, with Cios's precious presence still hovering everywhere, I was afraid I would lose the gossamer threads of her
existence woven all over my place.
But now I am starting to think that it is Cios who has sent me Rossini, he has been born the 10th of September, and just a few days after that I first detected the deadly lump in Cios's side.
Cios knows there is nothing and nobody who can ever overwrite in my memory the things and emotions we have shared, and that nobody will ever take her place. But I think she is not able to enjoy her life on the Rainbow Bridge seeing me so terribly sad and desperate, and wants to help me to deal with the pain the only possible way: sending me a bit of her spirit in a little orange-white furkid which happens to be of her own precious blood.
And so, after having put Cios
to her last rest in Franco's garden on December 9th (here
is an account of that day), I put the little one in Cios's carrier box and took
him home with me...
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