Thinking About Snow Monkey

My wife, Sandy, and I lived in Vermont for nearly ten years, from 1996 to 2005 in the fantastic little town of Brattleboro.  We moved there so Sandy could attend the School for International Training, and eventually we would start the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation there and it was from the town’s Humane Society that we adopted our two favorite pets. 

For six of those years, we lived in a small community called Estey Circle.  Eight houses on an unpaved circle — ours was the biggest one stuck right in the middle.  We had a lot of great neighbors, but recently I was thinking about one in particular.  Snow Monkey.  A cat that lived next door.

I guess what I was really thinking about was the old neighborhood and how much I missed it.  Winter in Vermont is very different from winter in southern Pennsylvania where I now live.  Winter here in Boiling Springs is particularly gray.  We get more ice than snow and the landscape rarely reflects that amazing beauty you often see after an average snowfall in Vermont.

I guess I first got to know Snow Monkey during one of those wonderful snows during our first winter in our home on Estey Circle.  I’m sure I had seen him romping around the first few months we lived there, but it was on a snowy winter’s day that he approached me, coat covered in snowflakes, little pink nose glowing in the fading light, purring loudly and wanting attention.  He reminded me so much of those Asian monkeys we often see lounging around hot springs in snowy landscapes that I started calling him Snow Monkey that very day.

Winter is a time for nostalgia.  Being cooped up under gray skies tends to encourage wandering minds to think about what has passed or been lost, melancholy sets in, sadness needs avoiding.  I have many fond memories from Vermont, but on the day I refreshed my personal website I was thinking about Snow Monkey.

Snow Monkey passed away the year we moved from Vermont.  He was sitting on a window sill watching the world spin by when, I guess, he just decided that he had been around long enough.  He lived a lot longer than the average outdoor cat, which is the most any of us can ask for, and was loved by many, which is more than most can hope for.

 He is missed.