I picked up the boys, business as usual, and drove home. It was a fairly nice drive home for once. No fighting, some nice conversation. All in all, a good car ride. Until we pulled in the garage.
Let me back up a bit and tell you that, as my Dad so lovingly puts it, we have slightly demented cats. They essentially have no fear of vehicles. None. So we always are pretty cautious while driving down the driveway and pulling in the garage. I let the garage door go up and slowly let the car drift into the garage. And then.....up and over SOMETHING. Horrible noise. Kids immediately CRYING. Oh cuss. I think I just ran over the cat!! What the heck? I collected my thoughts ( all 2 of them) and got out to go survey the damage. I couldn't find Lulu at first and finally found her outside underneath a trailer. Of course, she was hissing and would not come out. When she finally tried to run away, it was obvious that SOMETHING was very wrong. Her tail end was dragging on the ground. Jared is slightly freaking out. Justin has bolted to his room to cry his eyes out, and Travis and the dog are slightly bewildered as to why we are pacing and fretting. What a sight. We finally got her into the garage, only to see that she is leaking things...( I will leave it at that) and her mouth is open 'cause she is gasping for air. Oh. My. Word. I grabbed the phone and called Jeremiah, to try and figure out what to do. Of course, my sweet farmboy says "No problem, I will be home soon to take care of it".....UM......NEVERMIND. Taking care of it involved a bullet, and I knew that the kids could not handle that!
I ended up calling the vet to tell them that we were on our way. Now came the fun part. Loading up three sobbing children and a dying cat, and driving to Carlton...just a few miles away, but it felt ALOT farther than that! Sheesh. Between the cat moaning and the kids telling me that I was evil for killing the cat, it was a LONG ride.
Jeremiah met me there, and I left the boys in the car. We took her in and the whole process was over and we were handed a DEAD cat in less than 10 minutes. Wow. In the spirit of saving money, we decided to bury her ourselves.....JOY. I made Jeremiah take her in the truck, and the boys chose to not go with him to do the deed. He even said when he got home that it was awful to bury her.....glad to know he does have somewhat of an emotional side!!! :)
BUT, even after all the drama....God chose to give us a "silver lining" to it all. You will see the pun I have intended in a minute. He placed an angel of an older lady in the lobby at the vet. She was there picking up four kittens that she had just had fixed, and it just turned out that she had one little male that she was needing to find a home for. IMAGINE that?!?!? Jeremiah, suprisingly, was in favor of it and I was laughing to myself thinking this is crazy! I am leaving with a dead cat and a new kitten!! She just kept asking me to look at this kitten and giving me this sweet "come on" kind of smile....I am such a SUCKER!! I took him out the car to show him to the boys and ask them if they were interested. They all agreed that they would love to have him....so now we have a NEW KITTEN. Oh. Brother.
All in all, it has been a very welcome distraction from the drama of losing our beloved Lulu. They were all over it last night and the little two were fighting over him this morning. Little sucker bit me today, but I think he will be a fun addition to our ever expanding ZOO. I still can't believe I killed the cat, but I am glad today is a new day, and thankfully, it has been MUCH better than yesterday!!
So, let me introduce you to our "silver lining".....WILLIS....
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He is currently residing in our control room downstairs, until he recovers from, as Justin put it...."getting his JUNK taken off" So eloquently put, son. Thank you.
