I am so sad. Howard came home about 20 minutes after I did. I was of course sitting at the computer. We had spoken by phone about 30 minutes before so I knew he was on the way. I had received his call in my car, just before I got home.

I was so tired, trying to get everything ready before we left on our trip. I parked in the garage and walked around behind my car as I always do. The cat was in the driveway, rolling around on his back like a little roly-poly. I scratched his tummy. He was waiting for Howard to come home. I got my stuff out of the passenger side and went inside to take care of the accounting things.

About 10 minutes later Howard was at the front door saying “Oh, no. Oh, no” He unlocked the front door, dropped his packages and raced to the laundry room. I went out the front door to see what the matter was.

The garage door was going up, retracting from the dented Claude. It had struck him right behind the front legs, instantly stopping his heart. He had been one instant too slow to trigger the safety beam.

We buried him in the back yard in the spot pictured above and placed a bright stone to mark the spot. We are sad.