Rub some dirt on it.

August 22, 2009

I assume the statute of limitations on making light of the death of a friend's pet is a couple months, so I have a funny story to tell. The actual death of the cat is not the funny story, it is sad and I wish it had not happened to them, but the reaction of a 12 year old to the story was funny.

Our friends had the misfortune of watching their cat cross the road only to get hit by a car that was greatly exceeding the speed limit. It is important to mention the exceeded speed limit part of the story because you know that a cat would never cross the street if it knew it did not have time before that car arrived based on the posted speed limit. In this case, the unfortunate family witnessed said incident and therefore knew their pet was no longer going to be with them. The children are 12 and 10, so they were going to have some lasting memories of this incident. Having personally witnessed it, there was no cover up story available for the parents like:

-Fluffy ran away
-Fluffy requested a move to a farm so it could chase mice all day
-Fluffy is on vacation visiting Garfield and Odie
-Fluffy met her soul mate and went off to wed and have kittens with Mr Fluffy
-Fluffy has a cat nip problem and we tried to send her to rehab but she said no, no, no

Anyway, the son of another friend, who also happens to be a budding football player, was told this story as a hopeful cure for wanting to have a pet. There were other stories told about the poop picking up, the cost of veterinary bills, and the walking of the pet on cold days, but none had worked so far. Therefore, the harsh story of losing a cared for pet was brought out. However, having been a football player and being told things when he was run over by a linebacker or fullback like "Spit on it", or "Rub some dirt on it", he wasn't fazed by this cat's injury. He said that if he saw something like this happen to his pet, he would just tell it to "walk it off". Funny but wrong.

Until the SPCA finds out where I live...