Penny

Back in the beginning of 1996 my then girlfriend, now wife, and I had been living together for a couple of months. All was going good, and we decided to get a cat. I had never really been a cat person. I, sort of, viewed them as disposable pets. All the cats I had ever had, had hung around for a while and left. But, Brooke was a cat person.....Not like the movie.....She just really likes cats.

Anyway, we went to our local PetSmart, and went over to the place where they keep the rescue kitties. I was immediately drawn to this mean looking little cat, with a half black/half orange face, who wouldn't look at anybody, and seemed generally annoyed to be there. Brooke fell in love with a little, gray, tabby cat. I was trying to sway her toward the mean kitty. But, she was hell bent on this tabby she was looking at.

I reached into the cage, to try and get the mean cat, and it just glared at me like I was some kind of idiot.

Stupid cat! I said. I'm trying to get you a home, and you aren't helping!!

Just then, Brooke let out a yell. Her tabby cat had given her a pretty good scratch on her arm. She no longer felt any love for the tabby. In fact, given the opportunity, she may have turned it into a rug. But, I doubt it. Like I said, she's a cat person.

Now was my chance. I reached in, pulled out the mean cat, and showed it to Brooke. She was fine with it. She was bleeding, and just wanted to go home and put a couple of band-aids on her hand. So, I was able to get the mean cat. I named her Penny, after Pepe Le Pu's girlfriend.

She had been a ferral cat, which was why she didn't like anyone. Plus, she had had kittens, which is why no one wanted her.

When we got her home, she hid in the closet, and would not come out. Not even to eat.

Stupid cat! I would say. Fine. Stay in there and starve. See if I care.

She eventually came out.

At first, I was the only one she liked. Actually, "like" probably isn't the right word. Penny didn't "like" anyone. She just had different levels of tolerance for different people. I guess she just had a high level of tolerance for me.

In the days before EVERYTHING was on the internet, I had to read about 15 different papers a day. It took a long time, and I would get that black crap all over my hands.

Penny would come and sit on my lap, and make it almost impossible for me to do my work. Honestly, I think she did it on purpose. Just to annoy me.

Stupid cat! I would tell her. You aren't making this easy on me.

Anytime we did anything that Penny didn't like, she would just glare at us. You could actually see her take a deep breath, and look at us. If she could talk, she would have said, "What the hell did you two morons do, now?"

We moved, to 6 different states, and she glared at us.

We brought in other cats, and dogs, and she glared at us.

We had a baby, and she glared at us.

When we decided to start fostering Greyhounds, we had to "cat-test" them, to see if they were safe with cats. We needed a cat who wouldn't run, or make a big fuss about the dogs. So, we volunteered Penny. She was thrilled.....

We would put her down in front of a dog. If it lunged at her, it failed. If it didn't do anything, it was safe. When the dogs would lunge at her, she would just sit there, and glare at them.

Stupid cat! I would tell her. If one of these dogs ever got you, you would have a major problem.

She would glare at me, and walk away. "Moron," you could almost hear her say.

Last year, in the dead of Winter, we lost her. There had been some freezing rain, one night, and she never came home. My wife and daughter were upset. So, at 10 o'clock at night, I bundled myself up, and wandered around the neighborhood in the still damp weather. In my high-pitched, muppet voice I walked all over yelling, "Penny!! Kitty, kitty, kitty."

I did that for close to an hour, and nearly froze my ears off.

Nothing.

The next day, I pulled into my garage, got out of my car, and Penny came running around the corner.

Stupid cat!! I said. You could have froze to death.

Saturday morning I got up, and shoveled the last of the snow off my driveway. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Even though the snow would have melted off, girl scouts were going to be decending on my house, to pick up their cookies from my wife, and I wanted to make sure the snow was gone before they got there. It was a great morning. I only get to see my wife and daughter on the weekends. I was talking to my wife, while she got the cookies ready and I shoveled the snow. It was nice.

My daughter went to play at a friends house, and my wife and I got cleaned up. We noticed that Penny wasn't right. She was 15 or 16, now. We were never sure which. She had kidney issues, and renal failure. We thought we had a few more months.

We didn't.

After going back and forth, we made the tough decision. She was suffering, and we knew it. We'd had her for 12 years. Longer than our daughter. It was tough. But, it was right. Penny was done.

My wife and I went to the vet. The doctor came in, and assured us that we were doing the right thing. She gave us a few minutes. Then, my wife went out to the car. It's something that they don't tell you about in the husband/daddy handbook. One of many things. You stay until the end. Period. And, yes. It does, in fact, suck. But, you do it so that no one else has to.

They gave Penny a sedative. She relaxed, and I rubbed her under her chin, which she loved. She purred. That made me happy, because she had been so uncomfortable, that she hadn't been able to purr. They came back in, and gave her another shot. She purred for a few more seconds. Then, nothing. She was gone.

They said they were sorry.

I nodded.

They told me that we did the right thing.

I nodded, again.

No one said anything else.

I went outside. The sky was a perfect blue. The sun was shining. I just stood there, for a minute.

My wife was in the car, upset.

I thought about the little blonde girl that I was going to have to face, later. It's something else they don't talk about in the handbook. And, yeah. That part sucked, too. I would have rather given blood, again.

I took a deep breath, and walked to my car with an empty cat carrier.

Stupid cat................