The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

January 25, 2016


Ossi Oswalda, +/- 2005 - 1/25/2016

http://www.alansondheim.org/ossinow1.jpg
Ossi, sleeping, about a year ago
http://www.alansondheim.org/elegyforossi.mp3
http://www.alansondheim.org/preludeforossi.mp3

2 qin on the elegy, slightly detuned
they are coming together of their own accord
qing qin on the prelude

This morning, we had to put our companion cat, Ossi Oswalda,
down; she was fading rapidly and we were worried she was on the
verge of catastrophic failure. She had been with us for eight
years, had been unwanted, and when she joined us, she was
already three years old, very sick, and fierce. For the first
seven years with us, she slept alone; just this past year, she
joined us on the bed. She never, until today, sat or lay on our
laps; today, before the procedures which put her to permanent
sleep and peacefulness, she lay down on Azure's lap for the
first time.

We are bereft, beside ourselves; she was a deep and fundamental
member of our family, and she remade the architecture of our
place to her own liking, a remaking that changed faster than our
own placements. Her sounds, while we slept, formed the basis of
our sleep; her presence provided a mobile punctum which moved
constantly. She died young, of kidney failure, possibly cancer,
heart murmur, diabetes, and possibly stroke, but she had a good
life with us. I'm always amazed at the worlding of organisms,
from humans all the way across the great disks of lifeforms, and
Ossi opened up new and whole ways of thinking, movement, and
structure for us. We miss her, we miss ourselves, and what we
can say is that she went peacefully, and without pain, and her
pain was growing as she slowly, then quickly, was giving out.
Last night was the last night she slept with us, we were already
in mourning and those inclement regions of darkness which will
swallow us all.

Rest in peace, Ossi.

For her namesake, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossi_Oswalda

Thank you for reading, if you have the time, please listen to
the elegy and prelude.

- Alan and Azure

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