What we do for our friends...

I am a good friend. I'm very loyal to my friends, and I hope that they know they can count on me for anything. I am willing to do almost anything for my friends, but today I have gone beyond even what I thought I was capable of doing for a friend.

Kelly is moving into her ONE BLOCK FROM THE BEACH BITCH apartment soon. She gets the key this weekend and will work slowly to build her new home. In planning for this move she has undertaken several challenges that I never thought she would do alone. She is organizing and throwing out her stuff. She turned in her notice to her old apartment. She studied and worked hard to pass a test that would put money in her pocket. She got rid of her old car. She has done a great job, but the one job that she couldn't do was put her cat, Pidgin, to sleep.

Pidgin, as I've written before, is a sweet cat. But she is 17 years old and for the last six months or so has lost some control over her bladder. She has slowly lost weight and is mostly skin and bones underneath all the heavy black fur that covers her. She is very delicate and a move into a new place is liable to send her into a decline of massive proportions. Thus Kelly decided the time had come to have her put to sleep. Unfortunately, she realized she couldn't do this. This is when I stepped up to the plate...so to speak.

Kelly was hoping that Pidgin would expire on her own. Of course, this has not happened. Kelly mused about how she wished someone would just come into her house while she was at work, take the cat, and do the deed. She just couldn't bring herself to put down another cat, as she had already put down her first cat a couple of years ago. I thought about it. Now, as we all know I am not an animal person. It isn't that I dislike animals. I'm just not comfortable or knowledgeable about them enough to own them. I like Pidgin. I didn't much care for the other cat, Tibbs, but Pidgin I like. But I understood that she was old and ailing and not able to make the move. I understood Kelly's reluctance. I just couldn't do the deed myself. Not with Pidgin. Tibbs I could have done, but not Pidgin. I set out to find someone who could.

I ended up with three volunteers. My mother sighed and said she would. My friend, Jim, said he would have no trouble since the cat was old. My buddy, SueG, said, "Oh, for god's sake, I'll do it. The cat is old and peeing everywhere. She is miserable. She needs to end her suffering. I'll do it next week." I went with SueG.

She had me call the animal center, only she kept referring to it as the SPCA so that is what I looked up. They were quite nice when I inquired about prices, etc. The soft-spoken woman explained to me in a somber voice the how and when of such a delicate matter. I kept expecting funeral music to be piped in. Only problem....she needed to speak with Kelly via phone to get her okay. I thanked her, called Kelly, and sent her into a decline. She kept sucking in air as if she were going to hyperventilate or burst into tears at any moment. She told me she couldn't do this. I told her the SPCA was very kind about it. She told me that the SPCA was not the place just down the road from our house. We argued. She was right. I hung up and called the animal services located down the road from our house. A gravel-voiced man informed me it would be no problem just bring her on in. I called Kelly and told her to forget my previous phone call.

Kelly was okay with SueG doing the deed, but she didn't want to know ahead of time. She wanted it done and then she wanted me to call her and give her a code word so she knew the job was completed. We giggled our way through several code words, using humor as our way of dealing with the sad situation. We never really came up with a code word, but it was understood. She left out the cat carrier with a note with a picture of Pidgin so SueG wouldn't get the wrong cat. SueG decided today was the day.

All night long in my dreams the song, "Heartless" played. This morning I was hearing the song in my head. I started singing aloud when it hit me. I tried to tune out what was about to happen. I met SueG and we headed to Kelly's. I turned on the radio to hear "Jesus, will you forgive me? Will you understand?" I cursed, turned the station, and got, "So don't be sad, cause, two out of three ain't bad." I turned off the radio.

My involvement ended with handing over the key and pointing out Kelly's apartment. SueG did the rest. She arrived back at my house with tears in her eyes. She said it was because she was allergic to cats. I didn't believe her, but I let it go. She is my friend. She did this for me because I am her friend. I did it for Kelly because she is my friend. We left a silly note on Kelly's door and decided not to tell her while she was at work. We hope all will be okay...for all of us.