Snowball, My Siamese Cat, is Dead

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Growing up at 4022 Fullington Street in Oakland, California, my sister and I had our own Siamese cat as a pet. Mine was named Snowball and her car was named Cleo.

Our laundry room was located in a shed in the back yard. I remember that shed and when you got inside you saw the washer and dryer, some cabinets, and some shelving.

This day when I was 7 or 8 years old I was calling my cat Snowball. I called and called and he didn’t come to me. I looked throughout the house and then I decided to go in the back yard. After looking around and calling him I thought maybe he went inside the laundry room shed to get warm since it was cool outside.

I entered the laundry room shed and I called and called. Then I remembered when I was several years younger that another cat we had decided to go into some boxed up on shelves hanging on the wall to deliver her kittens. I thought maybe my cat, Snowball, was up on the shelves sitting there getting warm since heat rises.

As I looked up I came face to face with Snowball. He had a strange look on his face. I called him and I didn’t get any response such as twitching ears or his eyes blinking. As I got closer I realized that Snowball was dead and he died with his eyes open. At my age at the time this tally freaked me out and I ran into the house and my father came out and disposed of Snowball.

As I got older I realized that death is part of life and I am able to deal with it now even though it never gets easy to deal with.