[Leica] IMG: Kofi

[imra at iol.ie (Douglas Barry)]

Today will not be a day I forget easily. It's JFK's anniversary and I have
another reason. I'm sure you all remember where you were at the time and
what you were doing. At 13 years of age, I was upstairs in my bedroom -
specifically in "Alcantara", Granville Road, Foxrock Co. Dublin -  writing
an English essay - I used to remember the name of it up unto about ten years
ago - when at at around 7.15pm GMT my father called up to me that President
Kennedy had been shot. We were all horrified.

JFK & Jackie had only been in Ireland that June, so the fact that he was so
young, so friendly, so outgoing, the first US President to ever visit
Ireland, had the Jackie factor, and was of Irish descent, endeared him to
everyone here. The pair of them cut a colourful swathe through Irish hearts
who were used to the bleak flat pronouncements of stooped grey Irish
politicos like Eamon de Valera. To all of us Irish, the shots in Dallas had
killed one of our family, and robbed us of a brighter future.

Wish I could remember the name of that essay now. It's probably incipient
Alzheimers....

Yet, today, at 12.08pm GMT, another more personal tragedy as our cat passed
on. Kofi was 16 and had developed cancer recently. Losing his sight a few
months earlier, he still managed to navigate well. He used to spend each day
outdoors, stay indoors during the evening with us, and sleep outdoors at
night. However, once he had developed cancer, we let him sleep in the dining
room with a litter tray.

Yesterday evening, he started to do small circles of confusion, seemed quite
unwell, and later it took me a while to get him to stay in his bed. This
morning, I found him jammed in an alcove in the tight space between a
cabinet and the wall. He couldn't reverse himself out and I didn't know how
long he'd been there. So, reluctantly, my 21 year old son and I took him to
the vet. The prognosis was grim, so my son agreed to let him be put down.
One injection to make him sleep after about ten minutes, then two in the
heart, and then, after a further five minutes, another two were needed, as
he was fighting mightily the onset of the eternal shadows, and he was gone.

Kofi was a great mouser, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKIqSF3kBnk and,
much to our delight, a great ratter too. Unfortunately, as well as slaying a
large number of the rodent family, much to our dismay, he had a taste for
birds which he dumped as offerings at the back door. The largest offering
was a splendid cockatoo which must have heartbreaking for some loving
family.

He'll be missed, but the Kennedy memorial industry will always remind us of
Kofi's anniversary.....

Here are the two final pictures of him.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Kofi.jpg.html
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Kofi_s+Last+Journey.jpg.html

Incidentally, how many of you remember where you were & what you were doing
on that day in 1963?

Douglas