Saying Good-Bye

After being forced to say good-bye to my best friend of sixteen years, I was inspired to write his story. On March 10, 2008, my life turned upside down. This is that story. Though the audience is "Everyone", some parts may be too graphic for sma

What does a three-year-old know about love? Quite a bit, when it comes to a small, gray kitten from down the road. Her heart fills with joy; a joy she has never known before. She looks into his enormous green eyes and falls instantaneously in love. She smiles.

 

"This one, Mommy," she says, pointing.

 

She has to wait, fir reasons she does not understand. "He's too young," says Mommy. "You don't want him to leave his mommy before he's ready, do you?" So, anxiously, she waits. Finally, the day comes when she can taken her precious kitten home.

 

She carried him, her arms wrapped securely under his armpits, around the house. She shows him her room, Mommy's room, the kitchen (where Mommy snaps a quick picture), the living room, the bathroom, and the basement.

 

As the years go on, the little girl grows. She becomes an adolescent, then a teenager, adn finally, a young woman. Her kitten, too, grows. He grows to be a very large adult cat.He has developed a personality all his own, and lives up to the girl's every expectation of what a cat is supposed to be. When the girl is 19, she gets an apartment with a friend. Her fat counterpart moves in right along with her. At 16, the cat - and his human - know it's merely a matter of time. The cat, sensing his time is near, becomes more affectionate toward his owner.The girl thinks nothing of it. he loves her, that;s all. If she had known what she does now, she would not have gone away for a weekend.

 

While she spends the weekend with her fiance, her baby struggles at home. He knows his time is very near. He knows, however, that he must hold out for her return.

 

At long last, the girl does return. And not a moment too soon. She notices his food dish is empty.

 

"Baby," she coos, "Hungry? Time to eat."

 

She scoops his morning cup of food and shakes it a little, to let him know to come out from under her bed; his domain. She pours the food into his dish and waits. And waits. And waits. Concerned, she walks into her roommate's room.

 

"Have tou seen my baby?" she asks. "You know it's unusual for him not to come when he hears food."

 

"I've only seen him a few times this weekend, when he went through to use his litterbox. He's probably under your bed."

 

She goes to her bed and crouches down to see beneath it. Lo and behold, there he is, in all his gray, furry glory. She reaches for him, making kissy noises and stroking his fur. he scoots uncomfortably away. Thinking her baby's mad at her, she pulls the bed away from the wall to confront him, face-to-face. What she sees will haunt her nightmares forever. His face, badly distorted, is caked in blood. His oaws the same. His tongue, swollen, hangs from his mouth. The worst, however, is his eye. His right eye, once a beautiful green, is now milky-white in contrast, and half swollen shut.

 

She stands there, frozen in place, her heart rate and breathing rapidly increasing as he looks up at her sadly. Finally finding her voice again, she screams, threatening death upon whoever did this to her baby. She calls Mommy in hysterics, tells her what she;s seeing and now hearing (he's beginning to wheeze and cry). She wants to slash her wrists, die in his place, because she knows that today is the day.

 

"Wrap him in a blanket," Mommy says, "and hold him. I'm on my way. I'll be there in less than five minutes."

 

The girl wraps her baby in her comforter that's painted in clouds. He begins seizing. She freezes again. He falls out of the comforter and limps behind her to his spot on the floor, where he seizes again.

 

"He didn't want to stay in the blanket..." She says to no one.

 

When Mommy arrives, she, too, freezes in her tracks. Putting all emotion aside, they wrap her baby in the comforter again and hurry to the car. The girl drives Mommy's SUV to the local animal clinic. They run inside, calling out, "There's an emergency!" The doctor takes Baby back to the operating table, where he is put on oxygen and shaved.

 

After a few minutes, the doctor comes to Mommy and the girl. She tells them he's had a heart attack and asks what they's like done.. Mommy looks to the girl, who says, barely above a whisper, in a voice not her own, "It's time. He's in too much pain. We should put him down."

 

They go to him. Baby is seizing horribly. The girl shushes him and pets his head. He calms down a little.

 

"I love you, Baby," she tells him, as the needle penetrates his foot. "You'll be all better in a few minutes."

 

And a few short moments later, he is all better.

He's still.

He's at peace.

He's with Jesus.

 

 

R.I.P. *Spike* 03.10.08 approximately 11:00 am.

Author's Note

This wasn't easy for me to write. So please ignore any spelling or grammatical errors. But i really do need feedback on this. Thank you.

Reviews

[Kaleidoscope Apocalypse]

My dear, I know how much you loved, and still love, Spike. He was a dear friend for you and a much loved companion. I cannot say that I understand how you are feeling but I can tell you that I have been through my own such situations and I am here if you need me. Any spelling or grammatical errors, no matter how hard they were for me to move passed, were small and could have been worse. This was a heartfelt piece of writing and you conveyed your relationship with Spike wonderfully. I'm deeply sorry for you loss and I hope that in time things will start to get better for you.

All my love,
Krysi

[The Autumn Faerie]

Hey, hun.
I know this must have been very hard for you to write. Good ol' Spike's been around a very, very long time.
Knowing what it's like to lose a kitty, and friend, I'll leave the grammar and spelling alone. It's typically my biggest pet peeve, so I tend to get a little twitchy at times. Anyhow, to the point of my review, I think you've got decent real-story potential here. It could have been longer, and I would have like to have seen more of the girl's life, especially in the beginning when she and her mother discuss getting the kitty.

Some of the details felt a little forced to me, like, when she finds her kitty helpless and dying, she suddenly wants to take her own life--slit her wrists, as you said. Although understandable, I know you too well. You've a dramatic nature, and thus I must say, I expected this part to be a wee more heartfelt. The sudden temptation seemed a little out of nowhere, since the girl in the story had no previous written urges.

I think that's about all, my love. I do hope you'll accomplish your writer's dream someday. You've certainly got the potential.