Bittersweet moments

A Very Salty PSA

“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.” ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

So my furry four legged Chotchke took her journey over the rainbow bridge nearly two weeks ago and I have had many experiences since she has left including hearing and feeling her dig into the couch while I was laying down on “her side”. I would say the most prevalent feeling I have experienced is this sense of “bittersweet” I decided to look up what that actually meant.

Bittersweet

adjective

both bitter and sweet to the taste:

bittersweet chocolate.

both pleasant and painful or regretful:

a bittersweet memory.

I may be a bit off these days however I would actually say that both of these definitions are accurate…

From the first definition the Chach was a REALLY picky eater, sometimes she would have a crazy ravenous appetite and sometimes she wouldn’t eat anything at all. HOWEVER 95% of the time she was interested in whatever I was eating. Like most pet Mom’s depending on what I was eating AND how much she would whine or beg I would sometimes “give in” to feeding her a bit of what I was eating. She really loved food that I am not supposed to be eating (even tho I love these things) for example if I was eating cheese, she would practically be in my lap waiting for me to give her some. Or if I was having a great croissant or hearty bread WITH BUTTER she would just about lose her mind and of course I often acquiesced and gave her a few bites. So when it comes to the first definition of bittersweet, sitting on my couch by myself eating something I know she would want to share with me has been incredibly bittersweet…

As for the second definition, that has been the stronger of the experiences for me… As I mentioned above, the Chotchke would dig for like 10 minutes on the couch or bed before she would settle down (if she settled down 😕) and over the past couple of years she would have many accidents especially if I left her a bit too long by herself — these may not have been accidents but rather her annoyance with me for leaving her alone. These accidents required me to cover my couch and bed with accident proof mattress protectors, towels and other washable items. My need to do laundry and clean floors was a regular chore that nobody wants to be greeted with when you walk in the door.

So one of the first things I needed to do after the Chach passed was to take all of the covers and towels off my bed and couch… I haven’t seen my regular couch without a cover on it for a very long time and the same goes for my bed… As I took everything off to wash it and prepare to give away or dispose, I remembered I have beautiful things that my Mother made in storage, things I could not use in my house with a dog that would dig or have accidents on.

So this week, I went to storage and found both the handmade rug and king sized afghan my mother hand made, aired them out and put the afghan on my bed and the rug in front of my coffee table and had the deepest moment of bittersweet memories of both my Mom and my pup — where never the two could meet.