Now she’s on waiting lists
for three apartment houses
one where she knows for
sure her cat won’t be
allowed–the others, she
doubts he’ll be allowed–
which means the only
animals she’ll be able to
have will be
stuffed animals.
When this time comes she
worries about what will
become of her "baby"–
which has owned her (you
don’t own a cat–a cat owns
you) for nine years and is
14 years old–she knows it’s
hard to find good homes
for older cats–the way it’s
hard to find good jobs for
older people and disabled
ones like herself. So she
dreads the day she’ll need
to take him to the pound
where no wonder how
much she wishes she were
able to keep him and what
a lovable pet he’d make for
someone else, they’ll tell
her he’ll have to be "put
down." Were she not so
shy she’d ask, "Yeah, and
do we put people down
when they’re older than a
certain age? I mean, even
criminals on death row are
treated better than–until
the order comes to execute
them or they die naturally."
But she’s not good enough
at thinking on her feet–as
well as too shy–to make
such a speech–and even
if she’s lucky enough to
find a good home for the
little guy on her own–she
knows how traumatic it’ll
be for him, being torn from
her that way and maybe
never seeing her again–
figuring since he’s so old
he’s set in his ways–as
well as the fact that she
herself will miss the comfort
of his soothing purr as he
curls up in her lap while
she pets his soft furr as
she relaxes over a good
book. So the prospect of
giving her "baby" up makes
her very sad–she’s been
giving him all the love and
attention she can–for who
knows when an apartment
will open up–and to prepare
for the a petless life
she’s started collecting
stuffed animals–
Small, inexpensive ones like
the Beanie Babies she found
on sale at the neighborhood
grocery store two/$10.00–she
bought a pug and another dog
gray all over except for a
brown left ear, area around
the right eye, and tail–not a
breed she can recognize, but
cute–oddly though she’d
much rather have a cat as a
companion animal because
it’ll purr and cuddle and
snuggle in her bed and in
her lap, she prefers dogs as
stuffed animals–
because of all the different
distinctive breeds she thinks
they look more interesting–
thinking about only being
allowed to have
stuffed animals–
takes her back to her
childhood up to the time
she was nine–when her
family got their first cat–
before that, all she had were
stuffed animals–
And then she was away in
college in the western part of
the state–pets weren’t
allowed in the dorms–
she could only have
stuffed animals.
Now she hopes there’s
plenty of time before all
the pets she can have are
stuffed animals.
