Goodbye to a barn cat: 'It was a strange but very fulfilling relationship'

Donald Gregg with Shadow (undated photo)

Barn cats have long been a staple of rural life, but are less a part of daily life than house cats, because they have their own territory and are usually wary of humans, even those whose property they share. But that doesn't keep them and their human neighbors from forming attachments, perhaps at arm's length but with a certain connection. Such a cat, named Shadow, was the frequent companion of Donald Gregg, the father of John Gregg, news editor of the Valley News in Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt. When Shadow died recently, Donald Gregg emailed his family and friends a remembrance, and his son turned it into a Christmas Eve column for the newspaper. Here are exceprts:

Shadow, our feral cat, passed away earlier this month, very peacefully. She had been shutting down for a couple of weeks, eating less and less, and moving with a bit of stiffness. My wife, Meg, and I found her about noon, when we returned from yoga class, lying very gracefully, as though asleep.

The ground was soft, so I was able to dig her grave easily, near a favorite tree she used to scamper up, close to the old play house. . . . A few hours before Shadow died, for some strange reason I remember what we would say as children when on a swing, and we stopped pumping: “Let the old cat die.”

Well, die she did, and the first time I ever picked her up was to lay her in her shroud to be buried.

Shadow, true to her name, has slipped away. It was a strange but very fulfilling relationship. We shall miss her.

Donald Gregg, 88, lives in Westchester County, New York. He was a CIA official, national security adviser and ambassador to South Korea.