Good-bye to an old friend

Ok, now I'm feeling guilty as hell.

About a year and a half ago, my wife and I had to give up our two cats. I'm allergic (never knew it until we got the second one) and still stubbornly refused to let them go until our daughter showed signs of the same problem. Poor kid was stuffed up all the time and it went away as soon as the cats were gone.

She also tortured the hell out of them.

The female was my baby before I had a real one. Most of the time, she wanted nothing to do with any other human being but me. Followed me around and jumped for the lap any time I sat down.

The male, who we got a year after the female, loved everybody.

A friend of my wife's agreed to take them in. He had a ton of room in his place for them to run around and all kinds of dark places for the female to hide. She disappeared into his basement after we were there about a minute. Tried to find her to say goodbye, but she was almost all black, so we weren't seeing her unless she wanted to be seen.

Somehow she realized we were leaving and watched us go through the screen door. I've been seeing that image every time I look at this thread.

 

Ou current cat was adopted from a friend who became allergic to her. I should have known something was wrong when I showed up on adoption day with a cat carrier and rang the doorbell. My friend opened the door and yelled, "DON'T LET HER SEE THAT! We have to trick her." When I got home, I let the cat out of the carrier and she spent the next month under the freezer in the basement. She is a nice cat, but even the vet called her neurotic. She is almost impossible to catch when she doesn't want to be caught.

 

Eh, mine wasn't that bad most of the time. She was just in explorer mode that day and she liked her time to herself.

But I remember those cat-carrier battles with the male. He was a nightmare with those things.

 

Squared.

 

Oh man. That made me incredibly sad.

 

Good thing the dog episode of Futurama was on a few days ago; if it were on tonight and people here saw it after reading this thread, it might turn some the posters emo.

 

It's also an excellent Hendrix album.

 

Homer: Pftt... Rules. I'm a rocker, I don't care for rules.
Vet: Mr. Simpson, this is serious. If you take one more cannonball to the gut, you will die.
Homer: Die? Well, you don't scare me, doc, 'cause dying would be a stone groove. Got any messages for Jimi Hendrix?
Vet: Yes: "Pick up your puppy."
[pan to Rover Hendrix]

 

Oh, man. My Sparky Boy is 11, and a few years away, God willing, from that awful day. I'm not sure how much he would miss me if he left, but I would surely miss him. My nieces and nephews, who range from 6 to 30, would be crushed, too. I know he is the most popular mammal in my household, and I have no problems with that. It was my ex-girlfriend's idea to get him. She's long gone, and I got the better end of the deal.

I think George W. Bush is a stinking moron, but if I was ever in the same room with him, and he was talking about his dog, I'd swap stories for as long as the Secret Service would allow. People act better around their pets, generally, and you see sides of them you don't normally see, almost always a good side.

Pets aren't people, of course. They're different, which is why they are so precious. Reading about Shot's sacrifice closed up my throat a little bit, knowing it will be my turn sometime soon.

I think it's time to take another picture of my dog. Just in case.