Hi Pat,
I got to the end of this story. It was very well written, and I found myself quite taken with it. Your opening paragraph was a very good lead-in.
That is a really sad story though, Pat. I feel for your neighbour (the daughter--not the nasty parent, of course!) There are too many people who adopt pets with an attitude of them being disposable. I had no idea about the SPCA's policies on owner brought-in pets, as have never taken a cat there myself. Throughout the years, if ever I found a cat, I took it in and kept it...raised it as my own.
I could never-in-a-million-years have given my "Misty" away just to move into this 'allergy-free' place I'm in now...except that his original owner wanted him back, dearly...and I can still visit. Sure, he coughed-up hair balls all the time and EVERYWHERE. He shed all over the house, I was always tripping over him, as he liked to 'get under foot' and follow me around... and he almost always kicked his poops right out of the litter box because he dug so insanely fast and heavy all of the time!
Even when he left his polar-bear stuffie at the top of the stairs one morning--and I slipped on it and fell down the stairs: breaking my ankle in THREE places! Which led to surgery with 11 pins and a metal plate and two casts later...-- I STILL did even think of getting rid of him (I even kept his stuffie, because I knew how much it meant to him).
Your cats and dogs are like your children...yours for life, through better or worse.
Elizabeth
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