Avalanche

Project as a "Scar Story"

 

Avalanche

 

I took a few deep breaths and closed my eyes. This didn't seem fair. Who were we to judge when someone should die? Yet, as I looked at Avalanche, one of our family cats, I could tell her time was running short.

She had been a family pet my whole life and she had always shown her age for as long as I can remember. When I got older, so did she and her attitude began to change. She was crabby 24/7, had ran away from every person that would come at her, and she was a nightmare when you had to give her a bath. Still, with all that, we still loved her. She was ancient to my sister and me, but she was also a treasure.

Sitting here in the small waiting chairs, life seemed to slow. I suddenly was very aware of the light scratch the pad of the folding chair gave my legs when I shifted. The retro style clock in the back of the room gave off a "tick" as the hands moved in a synchronize rhythm. The sound of faded barks from the hidden rooms filled the awkward silence.

We hadn't been in here long, but seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours before someone behind the counter would come up. Faint footsteps. I lifted my head at the sound of heels clicking across the tiled floor. A woman in a doctor-like jacket with a cream colored blouse came down the hallway behind the desk. She was wearing a plain black skirt and had a teal stethoscope hanging around her neck. She was smiling at us as she came in.

How could someone be happy in this kind of place? This is a place of Life and Death I guess. They help the sick get better and bring peace to those that are dying. That's why we were here. To help the dying pass on with no pain.

"Hello. How can I help you?" the woman said in her cheerful voice. I cringed inside at her tone. This isn't supposed to be a pleasant trip. My dad explained to her that we wanted to put our cat Avalanche down because she was getting too old. The lady told us that she needed to weigh the cat first. I gently retrieved Avalanche from my sister as she instructed us what we needed to do. I brought her over to the oversized scale to place her on it. She felt light in my arms even before I placed her on the weight part of the scale. It only took a few seconds before the scale beeped and produced Avalanche's weight. We were all shocked to see what came on the screen. We hadn't realized that she had lost so much weight. The numbers 4.9 in red showed on the small monitor. Only 4.9 pounds?

Looking at the screen I finally realized that she was dying faster than I had thought. The idea of putting her down was something that I believed in now. We filled out some paperwork and paid for the price to put her down. To make the day worse, we had to pay an extra fee because we had come right before closing. I felt my anger start to boil deep inside me at their nerve. Here we are trying to put down a loved one and they wanted to rake in more dough because they were working over their time by 20 minutes?! I glared at the clock and waited for my parents to finish with the paperwork. I picked up Avalanche in my arms again and hugged her close. She didn't want to be held like this, I know, but she and I both knew she was too weak to change it.

The process was quick. She had to shave off a little patch of fur on one of her front arms to have some exposed skin. She then took out of the needle filled with the liquid and injected it into Avalanche's arm. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I just stared at her with tears rolling down my face in sorrow. Everyone except for my dad was cry at her lifeless body. After a few minutes, I stopped suddenly. I didn't need to cry. Her spirit wasn't here anymore so our cry was for the body that was left behind. It was better for her anyways. Avalanche was finally free.