Loss of a beloved pet

Jane Bowron, Wellington columnist and author, recently lost her cat companion.

His name was Benecio, and like our last, past Mystic (pictured above), he was black and white, and properly haughty.  Benecio was with Bowron during the Christchurch earthquakes, so through her columns we learned how he coped with "Old Bucky," as the earthquake string has come to be known.  He was with her through scares, and water shortages, and being overwhelmed with creeping silt, and he came back to Wellington with her, but now he has passed away.

Jane Bowron wrote a very touching column in his memory, but I will only quote a part -- the part that could apply to Mystic, as well.

"And then to celebrate, that hackneyed expression, Benecio's life and times and be grateful for the immense good fortune of traveling with him a little along the road, to remember the velvet of his touch, to applaud his elegance and style, his insistence in donning the black and white tuxedo at all times even in the terror and dust of the earthquakes when everyone else went feral.

"Not for him the casual sports coat or the slack of a jandal, it was spats and evening tie to the very end."

Will Jane Bowron get a kitten?  Undoubtedly we will read about it when and if it happens, but in the meantime what a lovely memorial to a black and white cat."