Pet Sematary

I got a message from my mom this morning, saying that they are going to put our cat to sleep, but I don't know if I can trust it. Our cat, "Kitty" (my family is notoriously bad at naming pets--we also had a bird named "Big Bird" and a dog named "Pupper") is fourteen years old and incontinent. My parents just installed new carpet in the basement. The carpet and the cat cannot both survive; one will have to go. But this is not the first time my mom has threatened to pull the plug.

Years ago, when I was in college and Kitty was much younger, she had an altercation with the garage door that left her minus one hind leg. It was a horrible injury and the surgery to repair her was expensive. My mom called me up, in tears, and said they had decided to spare Kitty the agony and put her to sleep instead of getting her stitched up. I came to terms with the fact that I would never see my childhood pet alive again.

Until the next time I came home to visit, and there she was, limping around on three legs and howling in pain. It was a pitiful sight for a few weeks until she learned to walk without the leg, but even more of a shock to me, since I thought she was dead. So, I'm a bit skeptical. Luckily I already went through the grieving process, and each time I visit my parents, I just expect that our cat may not be there any more. I'll believe it when I see it.