Treu

Treu passed away yesterday, after a short illness, an outcome that has shocked everybody home. He would have turned 10 this June. Now he's gone, much too soon, emptying our life of an irreplaceable source of unconditional love and joy.

[ST July 19, 2002]
Friday evening, 9pm or thereabouts. The moment's shape is still clearly defined in time. It was one of those rare instants, flawless, on a par with happiness in a subtle yet precise way, reflecting joy. I was lying on a folding beach chair, lazing. A and M were playing badminton in the garden, laughing, a few meters away from me. The kid could barely complete a few strikes in a row. He jumped and shouted foolishly, as if pretending he could play, getting excited every time his racket hit the shuttlecock, cheering himself up. M laughed as well. It was a lovely scene, their playing in the garden in the fading sunlight of a hot summer evening. It was then when Treu showed up from out of the blue and licked my toes with its tongue - boy did it tickle - topping off the charm of the moment, which was to dissolve itself a few seconds later. As fast as soap bubbles floating in the air do.