Category: animals

The Three Lives of Simone de Bébé

janice williamsonLeave a comment

My 14-year-old Simone de Bébé was in her last stage of life. She hadn’t been eating much at all the past few weeks. I made the first appointment I could with the vet to have her euthanized in a few days, on Monday. But in the end, she declined precipitously and I couldn't wait. 
Over the recent days when my Simone de Bébé was gravely ill, I experienced an ever present underlying nausea, an existential exhaustion. Not so much grief as despair. As though all the terrible deaths occurring everywhere in the world were happening right at my feet. 

Pandemic Journal 8/1/2021 – Simone de Bébé

janice williamson3 Comments

Boxing Day 2020 It was a clear day. Warm for a city not too far south of the prairie taiga. The temperature had risen to just below freezing. This walk with Helen wound its way through Riverdale along the river. We stopped to investigate a perfectly round hole in a hollow tree, the work of… Continue reading Pandemic Journal 8/1/2021 – Simone de Bébé

Pandemic Journal 3/11/2020 — freaking out (still smiling)

janice williamson1 Comment

Stuck inside a pandemic at a moment when the monolith south of the border is dominated by a fascist, it is sometimes hard to focus on the view up close - the provincial politics that undermine our well-being, the city politics that juggle a budget vulnerable to COVID effects and a vengeful governing provincial party that hates our progressive voting patterns. Sometimes it is hard to sleep.