In Memoriam - Part IV
- In Memoriam
- In Memoriam - Part II
- In Memoriam - Part III
- In Memoriam - Part IV
- In Memorium - Part V, The End
In a rather serious tone and with tears being held back, “Mama. . . if a man goes blind his family doesn’t send him away. . . First, we have to leave our church, then we lose our friends, and Casey has to go away and now Daisy is gonna die! (Insert over-exaggerated foot stomp here.) If I get sick where do I have to go?”
Thoughts: “Oh, my God! please help me say the right thing. God, you care about the sparrow give me words to help this child. Now!”
“First of all - we would never send you away. Never. Any of you. And you’re right about everything else that has happened and I know it’s hard, Baby, but if Daisy can’t learn how to find her food, water, and litter box she won’t be able to survive. She has to be able to eat and she can’t live without eating and drinking. When we move to a new house she will have a very hard time finding her way around. If she ever gets outside accidentally she will surely get hit by a car or beat up by another car or dog and would never be able to find her way home.” Am I saying too much? Am I scaring her? Does she understand?
“But, Mama, we just saw that man at McDonald’s in the new town learning how to take care of himself and he said he went to school to learn what to do. Can’t we send Daisy to school?”
History: A few weeks ago whilst house hunting in the new homestead we stopped at McDonald’s for biscuits and such. Enter a man with large sunglasses and a sightseeing cane to order some breakfast. He ordered his food, paid for it, and sat down (near us) to consume it. A man sitting next to him offered to help him. Blindman (or do I need to say visually impaired man to be PC. I am so not a PC person; I don’t intentionally offend, but I call it as I see it.) I digress - Blindman declined the offer explaining he was doing his Graduation Route. He had specific tasks he had to complete to graduate from the blind school. He offered his hash browns to the other man explaining that he didn’t like them but they were on his list to order. He had been given a list of specific things to do and a certain amount of money. All his money was in ones so he knew exactly how much he had. (Ray Charles insisted on being paid in ones.) This man was willing to talk about it and didn’t seem the least bit offended to be asked anything by this man. It was refreshing to see and hear someone talk about this kind of situation without noticeable bitterness or pain.
A blind school for cats. Hm? - I know of some dogs who have been trained when they have gone blind, I know cats can be trained. I’ve seen some very interesting trained cats - my personal favorite is SUPERCAT. SuperCat was in the movie Big Fish and we have seen him personally for the past four years in Hattiesburg with the Clyde Beatty and Cole Brothers Circus. SuperCat is Cool! But Daisy is fourteen years old. Old cats are more set in there ways than old dogs. Ever tried to teach and old dog new tricks? What about an old cat? It’s just not in their nature. Cats are very set in their ways.
“Sweetie, I just don’t think that’s possible. But I’ll tell you what. We will give her that chance. We will move her with us and see how she does. If she can’t take care of herself - find food and water, then we’ll have to put her down.”
“OK.” Big squeeze to mama.
So Daisy got a reprieve. Hubby and I planned how to make this work. We talked about just laying it out there for A (the five year old), explaining again that we would never send her away under any circumstances, but pets were different. Children and family have priority over animals. We decided we would put up a baby gate at our bedroom door in the new house and Daisy would have her own food and water bowl and a small box in our room. We said we’d give it a try and we will. All of this happened on Tuesday, February 8th. What a day!
