Missy Teaches A Lesson

Pets bring important lessons.

Unconditional love. Living in the moment.

The power of change.

This was important in the case of Missy (right), whom our daughter Robin rescued from the PAWS shelter last summer. Missy had been partly-declawed, then abandoned. She was terribly frightened. I think it was her neediness that got to Robin.

Robin was working at PAWS that summer as a volunteer. She gravitated toward the cats, who are in an old house known (of course) as the Cat Cottage. She kept the Cat Cottage clean, and made sure all the cats were loved. She also showed off the cats when people came by to adopt one. They are separated into groups, roughly by age -- kittens, young cats, and older cats. The latter are hardest to adopt out.

Missy was an older cat.

When we selected Missy PAWS told Robin they thought she was 2. She spent the first few months under our bed. When she finally came out, she spent all her time on our bed, or on Robin's bed, pausing only to use the litter box or eat some kibble.

She was very needy. But she paid you back for it. She would purr loudly when you pet her, snuggle close to an arm, a leg, a torso, or (in Robin's case) the top of your head. She acted old, which should have been a Clue.

Last week Missy had her check-up. The vet said she wanted her back for a teeth cleaning. I brought her in yesteday. She howled all the way there.

They knocked her out...and she never woke up.

Turned out she wasn't 2 at all when we got her. She was closer to 8. The shelter was reluctant to tell people how old its adult cats were. And that killed Missy. They gave her enough sedative for a healthy adult cat, they put it into an old, old cat.

Robin was devastated. This was the cat she had picked out for herself. This was the friend she slept with. This was her love, her charge.

But she learned. She learned important lessons.

Love is precious. Life is short. Use your time.

Robin has been reluctant to grow up, and with Missy she sometimes acted like a very young child. But now, I can feel the iceberg move, I can sense her starting to accept her adulthood. She graduates high school in two weeks.

Thanks, Missy.