May 10th, 1993
My Dad died after a surprisingly short battle with cancer. Whether he started off with throat cancer which then took hold in his spine, or the other way round (more likely, because he'd been complaining of back pain for about a year before) probably isn't that important, but it spread very quickly. In the last couple of months of his life, he lost weight until he was roughly half his normal weight.

I was quite surprised to see him when he died, though. He looked so much healthier once he was dead - relaxed, mostly. He looked a bit grey, but he really did look better than he had in months. I know that might sound a bit sick, but it's really true.

I still miss him, but I'm glad he wasn't that ill for long.

Apologies for the length, and lack of length joke.

Oh, and dead animals? Dozens. Possibly hundreds. Growing up on a farm will do that. robably the worst was a new-born foal that had somehow slipped under a fence, down a bank, into the river at the bottom and died. You can't tell me we're just anthropomorphising animals and projecting human emotions onto them - I can only describe the poor mare as looking grief-stricken.
(gordonjcp, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 13:15, 1 reply)

Animals
I stumbled upon a web page outlining the sledgehammer approach to the foot and mouth disease outbreak several years back in Cumbria. the thought of all those animals slaughtered (carelessly) and burned or buried made me very sad.

So yes, Animals count.
(Lurkaloid awarded wanking black belt on, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 13:51, closed)