'the rule of duration requires that a trust for the care of the testator’s animal for the rest of its life with no life in being mentioned, will be invalid if the animal may live for more than twenty-one years and thus has produced a judicial decision that a cat cannot live for more than twenty-one years; indignant cat-lovers and biologists, who may adduce evidence to the contrary, must be patiently told that the subject of their observations is a juristic impossibility.'
- a law textbook on trusts
my mother used to threaten my sister and i.
she'd say that if we weren't kind to her in every and any which way, that the sum of my parents' assets would get inherited by my dog. if there was any chance that our dog might have lived past twenty-one, she'd have fought against this, tooth and nail.
he died last year, and she was devastated.
the mention of him still gets her eyes leaking in all of half a second.
bless her.
