the wages of honesty...

Before I had kids, I had a cat.....

His name was Friedric--named after one of the VonTrapp boys from The Sound of Music. I hand-picked him from a litter of farm kittens to keep me company during the first few difficult months when, as a newly married couple, my husband and I had moved to a rural town. Because I didn't really know anyone, didn't know how to find my way around, had a spouse who worked 18 hour days, and lived in a house that didn't have TV--it was pretty much just me, the cat, Tetris, and 'The Best of the Beatles' CD until I started Design school and found a job.

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I have never been one of those animal lovers who looks at their pets as being on equal standing with their children--a belief further cemented when I actually started having children--but I do believe in commitment. If you agree to take on the responsibility of an animal, you commit to it: To seeing that they are properly fed, given good medical care (including and especially seeing that they're spayed or neutered), have warm/cool shelter, and are given a reasonable amount of attention and affection. You don't abandon them or give them away on a whim. If there are behavioral issues, you do all you can to educate yourself on how to correct them, and stick with it until the animal learns. That's the way I treated my Friedric. He was a good, loyal friend to me and to all four of my boys. At 13 years old, his urinary tract crystallized and his kidneys started to shut down. This was a condition I'd saved him from (at a pretty hefty cost) twice already--once at 4 years and again at 7. I had fed him special low-magnesium food to try and prevent the condition from re-occurring, but his poor body was just getting old. I took him to the vet who said he COULD probably save Friedric again with several days of IV's and care (and $1200), but that it would really only be to prolong his life for another year at the most. Sadly, I chose to have him put to sleep.

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I feel like I never really got to mourn his passing properly because of this ... but his absence was certainly felt by the boys and I.

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My two oldest started bothering me for a pet again about a year ago, and I bought them gerbils. They've been thrilled with them. Then, about ten days ago, this girl shows up in our backyard:

Since we don't have any pets, our home seems to be a hangout for all the local cats and dogs battling for a little extra turf, so I wasn't surprised to see a strange cat walking around. We pet her for a while and then went about our business. In the morning, she was still there. And that night. And the next morning. And so on. I kept waiting for her to go back to wherever she came from, but she'd seemed to claim us. My 12 year old named her "Blake" -- a mixture of the words black and gray. She was very sweet and I found myself growing as attached to her as my kids were.

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But....honesty gnaws at a person like me who believes in it. I had to make sure she didn't belong to anyone else. So, today I loaded up my 5 and 3 year old boys, put Blake in Friedric's old carrier, and headed for the Humane Society. There, they could scan her for a microchip and file a "found cat" report. Sure enough...she was chipped. They phoned the owner and left a message. However, because she WAS owned by someone, they had to keep her for a week to see if she would be claimed. Which meant...yup....that cat that COULD have been mine for free if I'd just cared a little less about being honest, now has the possibility of being mine in a week....for $50 dollars. My 5 year old was bawling as we left without the cat and with me trying to explain to him how really, really we did the right thing.

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Sigh.

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The wages of honesty. You'd think you'd get rewarded for it--but often times it bites you. Ah well....Throw a few more blessings onto that pile awaiting me in Heaven one day, right? :)

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Whether or not we get to keep Blake, I have a feeling we'll be coming home with a cat of some kind next week....