The Texas Veterinarian (Based on true events)

The veterinarian of Hillsboro thinks he has seen it all. A surprise is waiting for him during a house call at the Parker sisters' house.

 

Thursday Oct. 29, 1959 -The Texas Veterinarian

As Dr. Benjamin  Thompson walked down Elm street,  he was thinking back on last Saturday’s get together.  He had had a small group of friends come to his house in order to gather around the radio and listen to the football game between UT Austin and Rice University.  It had been a pleasant afternoon spent cheering for the Longhorns and drinking beer.  He and his friends did this often and they called their get-togethers  “the sports club.” (The meetings were always held at his house.)  And if the weather was good,  they would place the radio in the kitchen window pointing towards the backyard.  They would make hamburgers on the grill.  Last Saturday, they had a special surprise visitor.  Hill County Sheriff Kevin Cordell dropped in on them.  They were glad to have him !  During half-time, he told law enforcement  stories. The good sheriff came from a long line of peace officers.  Sheriff Cordell had an uncle who was among the Texas and Louisiana police officers that ended Bonnie and Clyde’s crime spree in 1934. Sheriff Cordell knew many unusual details about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.  Yes, Dr. Thompson could not think of when he had had a more entertaining Saturday than last Saturday.

 He had just  turned onto Abbott street and was crossing over the Goldman family’s driveway area  when he clipped his toe on a protruding slice of cement.  He stumbled but he did not fall. He probably could not have helped himself if he had fallen because he was carrying his doctor’s bag in his right hand.  He was jolted back into reality.  “Now I feel clumsy,” he mumbled to himself.  He continued to mumble and he said, “And I thought I would walk this afternoon to feel better and to look better.  I feel clumsy and I look sweaty. I should have driven.” It was 

 78 degrees at this moment and he had already been walking for 10 minutes.  Benjamin had not exactly taken good care of himself.  And especially considering that he was a physician  and knew the importance of being cautious,  some of his friends wondered why he was not in better shape.  So what if he had partaken in one too many drinks in say, the past five years. And so what if he had indulged in one too many desserts here and there as a full-blown, full-grown adult.  Hadn’t he earned the right to slack off a little as time ticked by ?  Yes.  Yes,  he had earned that right. 

Ben had spent some serious time working diligently at academics.  It wasn’t easy surviving Texas A & M.  And after time on a college campus, he had worked hard learning the ropes and building up his resume by working in Austin.  He had worked along  side what Texas called the very best veterinarian in the state. He had put in every ounce of push his bones possessed while working under the guidance of  Dr. Rodger McLauren.  So much time spent on details; so much time learning how to talk to owners of farm and ranch animals as well as dog and cat owners.  Some  Texans needed their animals as work tools while other Texans wanted a dog or cat for companionship.  Ben constantly reflected back on his time spent in Austin with fond memories.  He felt privileged to have been brought into the world of  Dr.  McLauren.  It had been hard work but that was okay.  Hard work pays off.  Now,  right now, these were the days that  Ben considered to be easy days.  These were the days that he could pick and choose what hours he did and did not want to work as the only veterinarian in the small but not so quiet town of Hillsboro.  Ben had not entirely come to that conclusion on his own. His best friend, Paul Hill, had influenced him to start being more relaxed about life.  After Ben and Paul had gotten to know one another fairly well,    Paul began to tell Ben what he thought of people who worked and worked and worked. “ Those people were headed straight towards a heart attack,” Paul would say.  He  was more than opposed to that lifestyle.  He must have told Ben one hundred times,  “I have seen plenty in my time and I owe it to you to remind you that life is short.  Relax a little.  Leave your schedule a little loose.  Don’t rush so much.  Slow down.”  

The doctor was now on Franklin street.  He was on his way to the Parker sisters’ house. He was smitten by the big, white Victorian house with a black wrought iron fence that enclosed both the front and the backyard.  He did think it was a perfect yard in which children should be playing. It seemed such a waste of space for two spinster women.  This house had come to these women by way of their great aunt who had left it to them.  They had moved in two years ago after the aunt passed away.  No one in town knew the Parker sisters very well because they more or less kept to themselves.  They were as over-protective of themselves as they were of their beloved cat Midnight.   Perhaps Midnight symbolized  the daughter that they never had.  Or perhaps they  simply loved anything that appeared feminine.  They pampered that cat !  Neighbors had said that sometimes they had spotted Midnight with an outlandish, fancy necklace. (People had a pretty good view point as they passed by the backyard of the Parker house.)   Some people had reported that at times,  Midnight could be seen  sitting in a baby stroller while out in the backyard.  Oh, they loved that  cat !  They had named her Midnight because her fur was an unusually jet black color.  The feline was a bit on the tiny side so the sisters had chopped down the name and at times,  called the cat Minnie.  It was certainly a fitting nickname. 

The Parker sisters were terribly confused and disturbed when Midnight’s body began to look as if it were on the tail-end of a pregnancy because the cat was absolutely a house cat. Yes, Midnight would go into the backyard but not very often.  And certainly, she never went into the front yard. She did not like the noisy cars that went along  with living on Franklin street.  She did love the second story of the house.  But the women  did not.  The sisters were going upstairs less and less these days.  Martha avoided the stairs because of her bad knees and Naomi was down right scared.  She was not secure of herself either physically or emotionally. She relied on Martha for many things. Most of all, she relied on Martha for reassurance.  She needed lots of reassurance.  She needed Martha,  plain and simple.  

Dr. Thompson had finally reached his destination.  He walked up the three steps that it took to get up on the front porch of the big house on 498 Franklin street. He tapped on the front door lightly because he knew that Naomi was jumpy. He wanted to be considerate of her feelings and her bad nerves. And he reflected upon Dr. McLauren’s techniques in dealing with pet owners who were scared for a sickly animal.  “Be soft. Anyone can break, “ Mr. McLauren said on a daily basis.  Dr. Thompson could hear the Austin vet’s voice in his head. 

Upon entering the Parker house,  the doctor was immediately offered a glass of tall iced tea.  With lemon.  It was Naomi who began to ask Dr. Thompson why Midnight was pregnant.

Dr. Thompson asked his own question.  He inquired,   “Have you two nice girls ever heard the expression,  the  cat  is  out a’ courtin’ ?”  “Oh, we have heard that expression before. But our Midnight is never given the opportunity to go  a’courtin’ .  She is a house cat.  Now once in a while, she does follow one of us out to the backyard.  But we can swear on a stack of Bibles that no Tom cat has gotten hold of her because we keep a watchful eye on her when she is in the yard.”  Dr. Thompson understood that the two elderly women could not have been as watchful as what they claimed, for a pregnancy does not simply happen on its own.  We all know that.  Perhaps  their wits were not as  sharp as they wanted to believe.  

Naomi, Martha and Dr. Thompson were gazing upon Midnight  and conversing about her in the parlor when it happened.  And Dr. Thompson was in the middle of taking a satisfying gulp of tea when it happened.  Another cat; rather scraggly and mean-looking.  This other cat walked from the kitchen area, through the parlor and then continued east towards the entrance area. Then the cat jumped up onto a chair, then onto the window ledge area and then took a demonic  leap out the front open window.  The cat could have landed on Franklin street or Ransome street.  Flip a coin. 

There was plenty of October afternoon sunlight coming in through the windows.  

Dr. Thompson trusted his eye-sight. He knew what he had seen.  So why hadn’t the sisters batted an eye ?  This other cat was clearly the other half of the whole pregnancy.  “Ladies ! Mystery solved ! That was the reason right there ! That other cat ! Did  yall not  see  that

 other cat ?”  screamed the vet.  It was Martha who responded  very casually and said, 

“Oh him ? That’s not another cat.  That’s  just her brother.”

Ben walked back towards his downtown office.  By now,  the temperature had dropped.  Maybe now it was only 74 degrees outside.  Even so, the good doctor  was tired. He was lugging his medical bag along with the big, mean-looking cat.  The Parker sisters no longer wanted the brother cat once it was explained to them that he was also the other cat.  They had barely liked the boy cat to begin with, but now,  they despised him.   Dr. Thompson  never could have predicted that the Parker sisters’ house call would have resulted in him adopting a big, scraggly animal.  Yes, he was now stuck with the  “brother cat.” 

The vet could not wait to tell   this crazy story to his good friend Paul Hill.  All of this would be kept between themselves, of course.   The doctor wondered if Paul Hill would laugh at this little bit of information.  Or maybe Mr. Hill would merely spit out a quick,  “Oh Good Lo’d !  Are those sisters shu-stew-pid  all the time or just on Thursdays ?”