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Goodbye to Gumdrop
Jul. 4th, 2008 10:47 amWell, I just returned from the vet, where I settled my bill (the final tally is up to $950 total) and brought the remains home. I was on my scooter, and didn't think that it was worth $10 in cab fare (more like $12-$13 now that they just raised their prices) to truck a dead cat home, so I balanced the bulky pet carrier between my lap and handlebars and rode home that way. They put her in a twisted-shut trash bag inside a purina cat foot box, sealed with tape. I opened the box, undid the bag, and said my goodbyes, then I tied it shut again and made room inside the freezer above my fridge. There she'll stay until Sunday, when the parents come up.
But…it's time to get on with my life. I'm looking into adopting a new cat. There's a year and a half Bengal male in an adoption center nearby, and while I was at the vet I met the sweetest little orange shorthair adult, named Diva. Very affectionate cat. I'll see about adopting one, the other, or both, as soon as I'm sure my apartment is flea-free.
And for that, I need to clean my room.
I've never cleaned my bedroom completely. Not since I've been here. There's just so much junk, I always felt like I was defeated before I started. But there are fleas in there and I need to get rid of them, and my carpet could really do with a good shampooing but I've never felt like I could afford it until I had all my rooms clean.
So I guess I'll just think of this Herculean labor as my own personal monument to Gumdrop, and see about getting it done. I'll go out, get a nice chocolate malt from Braum's as comfort food, and then kick it off.
It's really the end of an era, I guess. Gumdrop has been with me ever since I first moved into this apartment, in April 2003. She'd been living outdoors until I moved, and was clearly a stray of some long standing—one of her ears was scarred and wrinkled up as if it had been torn and healed a time or two—and now that I finally had a bigger apartment I felt save in scooping her up and carrying her away to live with me inside. She had already been spayed, and she had a more or less sweet nature, so I could only suppose she had been someone's abandoned housepet. She's stayed with me all through the end of that job, my time working at Team Media, and my data entry days at Mihlfeld & Associates. Now, as I begin assuming new responsibilities at Mihlfeld, I do them without my beloved pet. But there will be new pets—and new bereavements, but that's the price we pay for caring about things. I'd rather have pets in my life than not, even though I know what they will bring me down the line.
Goodbye, Gumdrop. I'll miss you.
But…it's time to get on with my life. I'm looking into adopting a new cat. There's a year and a half Bengal male in an adoption center nearby, and while I was at the vet I met the sweetest little orange shorthair adult, named Diva. Very affectionate cat. I'll see about adopting one, the other, or both, as soon as I'm sure my apartment is flea-free.
And for that, I need to clean my room.
I've never cleaned my bedroom completely. Not since I've been here. There's just so much junk, I always felt like I was defeated before I started. But there are fleas in there and I need to get rid of them, and my carpet could really do with a good shampooing but I've never felt like I could afford it until I had all my rooms clean.
So I guess I'll just think of this Herculean labor as my own personal monument to Gumdrop, and see about getting it done. I'll go out, get a nice chocolate malt from Braum's as comfort food, and then kick it off.
It's really the end of an era, I guess. Gumdrop has been with me ever since I first moved into this apartment, in April 2003. She'd been living outdoors until I moved, and was clearly a stray of some long standing—one of her ears was scarred and wrinkled up as if it had been torn and healed a time or two—and now that I finally had a bigger apartment I felt save in scooping her up and carrying her away to live with me inside. She had already been spayed, and she had a more or less sweet nature, so I could only suppose she had been someone's abandoned housepet. She's stayed with me all through the end of that job, my time working at Team Media, and my data entry days at Mihlfeld & Associates. Now, as I begin assuming new responsibilities at Mihlfeld, I do them without my beloved pet. But there will be new pets—and new bereavements, but that's the price we pay for caring about things. I'd rather have pets in my life than not, even though I know what they will bring me down the line.
Goodbye, Gumdrop. I'll miss you.
