The cat is dead

Wordle 597 5/6

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I thought the most difficult thing to do yesterday would be to get the kid through a museum without trouble. Hah.

I let the cat out as soon as I got up. I wouldn't have thought anything of it a year ago, and even a week ago it was beneath mentioning here, but given his health I couldn't help thinking about it. Breakfast was normal: pancakes and bacon. I did my physical therapy in the late morning. We had a leisurely morning, followed by plans for a Girl Scout event at 1. Just as we were about to go to that, I got a phone call. The local humane society had picked the cat up. They were planning to euthanize him until they scanned his microchip, learned he had an owner, and called us. 

The kid and T. had plans that could even be described as commitments, so I discussed contingencies with T. while dropping them off and then drove in the other direction to the shelter. I considered having him put down there as they were recommending, or at a vet's closer to home tonight or tomorrow so T. and the kid could say goodbye. On the way I had a couple confusing phone calls with the shelter that made it seem unclear they had him, apparently their doctor hadn't updated the records their receptionist was seeing or something, but it was definitely him when I got there. Their veterinarian put things more bluntly than ours had. Not sure if I'm mad at our vet about it. In the end, I decided to have him put down then and there. It was hard, but they were right, he was in pain and not getting better. 

I asked for a few minutes alone with him. I tried to put him on my lap. I know he doesn't like that, but I hoped maybe he'd be in pain enough to appreciate something soft and warm to sit on, instead of the metal table. He didn't. He didn't fight but his claws were tensed. It wasn't helping him, it was just me clinging to him while I could. So I... let him go.

But life goes on, ironically, and we decided not to disrupt the day too much. So after that I drove to the kid's friend's house, picked her up, and drove down to the Girl Scout event and picked up T., the kid, and another friend, and drove the 5 of us to Planet Word. It was fun enough. I enjoyed the poems and displays about etymology. The girls enjoyed the karaoke and guessing game for common idioms, e.g. one of them would hold up a cardboard pickle with a cutout for a face and the other would try to guess the phrase "in a pickle". We were there from around 3 until almost its closing time of 5. 

Then we dropped the friends off at home and then, finally, we gave the kid the news about the cat and had the talk we had been dreading about death. It was hard, of course. Her first reaction was to get out her iPad and try to look up "black cats for sale near me" and try to replace him right away. Her next reaction, after we explained that we couldn't get cats that easily and shouldn't anyway (a lot of pet stores are inhumane, and we'd want an outside cat due to our allergies but it's hard to make sure they'll be safe, and we want to try at least a few weeks totally pet-free to see how it is, and we can't replace Buddy because he was an individual we loved and we should treasure his memory), was lots of tears, of course.

I had planned a recipe to cook, but decided I didn't have the time or energy and just ordered pizza.