David McElroy

Over the past few months, there were three kittens behind a restaurant where I often go. One of the restaurant employees adopted the first one when he came up to her months ago. I found out a few days ago that a gold-colored kitten was caught by some young women who adopted him weeks ago, too.

And then there was the elusive little gray tabby who I pursued for at least six or eight weeks. Nobody could touch him.

He was fast. He was smart. One of the kitchen employees wanted to take him home, but he couldn’t get close to him. For weeks, I couldn’t, either.

On Nov. 25, I finally got close enough to him — as he was hiding in a drainage culvert in the parking lot — to snap a photo of him. When I posted that picture on Facebook and explained that I had been trying to catch him, a friend in North Carolina suggested that I get a trap.

A week later, I was still trying to catch him with my haphazard schemes when my friend texted me to say she was sending me a trap. I couldn’t turn that down. She ended up buying one at a chain store with a location about two miles from the restaurant.

The next day, I picked up the trap and headed out to catch a cunning kitten.

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For 14 years and two days, Merlin has been the undisputed sovereign of my household. But this regal feline’s long reign ended Sunday afternoon. The king is dead.

I already had a houseful of cats and dogs in 2008. The last thing I needed was one more. But the beautiful stray cat who spent time all over my neighborhood was spending more and more time on my porch.

The woman I was dating at the time named him Merlin because of his full white beard that that made him look like a wise old wizard.

On Nov. 18, 2008, the weather turned cold in Birmingham and the low was heading below freezing that night. I brought Merlin inside to protect him against the cold. I didn’t intend to keep him — but he never left.

The other cats loved Merlin. They deferred to him, not out of fear, but as though they owed him respect and obedience. From the very beginning, he was their king. And so began the 14 years during which he ruled over them all — and he was loved by all of us.

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You might have seen this cartoon dog and these flames before. The artwork has become popular on “memes” which satirize people who are oblivious — or in denial — that their world is falling apart around them.

I feel like the little cartoon dog. I feel as though the world is on fire around me. The economy seems to be collapsing. The political system is in a dangerous shambles. The broader culture is a dysfunctional cesspool which is driven by idiots who are out of touch with reality.

But it’s not just the broader outside world. My own life is burning down, at least by the standards of what I expected and what I wanted — and even by the vision of what I believe is possible for my life.

I’m sitting here passively — in the metaphorical sense — and I’m watching the chaos play out all around me. I’m not doing anything about it because I haven’t figured out how to fix everything. I keep functioning as though everything is normal.

But inside, I am painfully aware that this is not fine. Something has to change.

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