The other day, Mom took her cat, Smokey, into the vet because he had a hurt foot. She dropped them off and told them to go ahead and neuter him while they were at it, so they suggested that they do some blood work before the surgery to ensure she wasn't wasting money. Sure enough, a little while later, the vet called and said that Smokey had the feline version of AIDS. Fabulous. The good news is that the cat could possibly live several years with this disease. The bad news is that in the meantime, it will just be one thing after another--bladder infections, respiratory infections, etc. Mom realized that she couldn't possibly handle that on top of everything with Dad (and with him being an outside cat, he'd just be spreading the disease in the meantime), so she made the decision to put him down.
Long story short, Laura and I just returned from the vet's office, where we attempted to give Mom some bit of moral support as the cat was put to sleep. It was really super sad. Please add Mom to your prayer list. I know it may seem like a trite thing--obviously, no one places a cat on the same level as a human being, but it was really difficult for Mom to handle this on top of everything else.
On a lighter note, all the guys in our family did something really neat for Dad this weekend. As I noted in a previous post, Dad's hair started falling out on Christmas Eve. After a day or two of that, Dad got a little sick of being covered in hair, so he asked Laura to come shave it off for him. So she did. Eric had already shaved his head in a show of solidarity, and that put a little idea in my brother's head. What if all the guys did it?
So Friday night, my husband Mark, my brother Danny, and my brother-in-law Greg joined Eric in the Great Head Shave of '08. Even neighbor Tim got in on the act, although he didn't go so far as to take the razor blade to it after the barber was done with the clippers. We wanted it to be a surprise for Dad, and boy, was it! Here's a picture of the great look on his face as all the guys walked in to surprise him.
And here's one of all five guys with Dad.
And here's one of the five guys posing outside with their new 'dos. Mark was such a good sport about it. He is not a fan of having a shaved head (brings back bad memories of basic training, I believe...), but he cheerfully succumbed to the peer pressure to make Dad smile--and smile he did!
And the obligatory Austin Powers "Dr. Evil" shot...
2 comments:
Holly:
Sorry to hear about Debbie's cat. They become like one of the family and it still hurts when we must part from a small creature that only asks for little things like food and a bit of attention. I would be sad too. My cat is 15 and I must give thyroid patches to her or she would scratch what little hair she has completely off her body. And, yes animals have human illnesses just like we do.
Kudos to the guys for showing their support by shaving their heads. And...I believe I almost saw a smile on Doug's face. Doug must be like Joe - hard to catch him with a smile in a picture. Hope to see one soon!!
We will continue to pray and always remember:
Romans 8:39 says, " Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus".
All our love,
Aunt Loretta and Joe
Thank you, Aunt Loretta! Yes, you are right--that was an actual SMILE on Daddy's face! He really grinned when all the guys came in. He got a big kick out of it, I think.
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