» Desperate Times

The Best Cat in Christendom
For about a year, I lived in a small one-room apartment alone, with only my dear cat as company.

One terrible, terrible week, I realized that my cupboards were almost totally bare, and I wasn't going to be paid for several days. Bad for me, of course, but even worse for poor Kitty, as we were out of cat food as well.

Now, I have one bad-ass cat. He's a stray that I adopted. He's stared down Irish wolfhounds, broken through window screens to beat on every other cat within miles, survived near-fatal asthma attacks, and plays fetch. He's also a big, rumbly-purring tom that wakes me up every morning by gently licking the tip of my nose, so I am rightfully soft about him, and the idea of having him go hungry was too much to bear.

Right. Off to scrounge the cupboards, then, for the both of us. One inventory later, and the entire contents of the kitchen were laid bare on the dinette:

* Vanilla extract
* Three cans of tinned pumpkin

And that was it. So, I did what I had to: I divided a can of squash into two bowls, set one on the table, one on the floor, and called my dear cat.

He walked up, gave it a sniff, and looked at me. "Sorry, mate", I said apologetically. "That's it for the both of us." With what I can only describe as a feline shrug, kitty dug in and ate it. Three days, and both I and my cast-iron cat ate nothing but canned pumpkin.

I bought him an especially fancy tin of cat food as soon as I got paid, and although we've both had slim times since then, I've been able to keep us in cat food.
(Sun 18th Nov 2007, 5:16, More)

» My most treasured possession

A beautiful aquamarine ring and earring set.
I was graduating from school, and my parents threw a small party for relatives and close friends. After all the gifts had been opened and cake had been eaten, an old family friend, a frail old spinster whom I loved dearly, pulled me to the side.

"I have something for you", she said, and handed me an ancient Kodak film container, so old that it was made of melamine and screwed together. I opened it up, and nestled in a small square of yellow flannel was a beautiful pair of earrings and a matching ring. "I want you to have this", she continued. "When I was your age, I had a sweetheart. He was very special to me, and once, on a trip to Brazil, he brought these home to me." Knowing, as I did, that she'd never married, I waited for her to finish. "He went overseas during World War Two, and...he never came back. I had another friend who had thought that she had lost her sweetheart, so she married another, and after the war, it turned out that her first love had been in a POW camp. I will never forget the look of disappointment on his face when he found out, so I waited, because I wouldn't have been able to bear if my sweetheart had come home to find out I was with another man. He never did come home. But I want you to have these, I never could wear them, but I think they will look lovely on you."

And that is my most treasured possession, those earrings, that ring, and that story. I will wear this jewelry on my wedding day. To this day, I can't believe that I was given something so amazingly precious, and I will never forget that someone loved me enough to share that with me.
(Fri 9th May 2008, 6:40, More)

» The nicest thing someone's ever done for me

Saving Teh Fluffeh
I have a large tabby tabby tomcat named Simon. He is currently curled up next to me, purring his rumbly purr and being a happy cat. I've written about His Furness in a couple other QOTW....

Two years ago, I noticed that he was a bit poorly and had been off his food for a couple of days. I took him to the vet with my boyfriend, where I was informed that he was suffering from a rather rare liver disorder that struck very quickly, was very very often fatal, and that there was an almost certain chance that he would die, unless he underwent an EXTREMELY expensive operation, after which he would need to be hand-fed every three hours for several weeks. If I could afford the operation, there was a very good chance he'd make it; if not, I was best off just putting him down, as the chances for survival were rather poor.

At the time, I had NO money, was preparing to move, and had no savings to draw on. As I stood there in shock, wondering how I could possibly cope with the fact that I was going to have to put my cat down due to nothing more than sheer poverty, my incredibly boyfriend simply looked at me and said, "Well, that's settled then. We'll just pay for the operation together."

He paid for more than half of my cat's vet bills, stayed up at night with me when kitty needed round-the-clock care, and then carefully managed his breaks at work so that he could come home to care for him when I wasn't able to get away from work, all because he knew how attached I was to my cat, and because he's also a big soppy that couldn't bear the idea of putting down my big purring cat.

That act pretty much sums up why I think he's absolutely wonderful. Saving the life of one little kitty cat was important enough to him to part with a significant chunk of money and time, and he expected nothing at all in return.

I'm still with both of them today--the cat AND the boyfriend.
(Mon 6th Oct 2008, 2:20, More)

» Injured Siblings

Heh.
My sisters and I used to pound on each other with unerring regularity.

My father once interrupted a knock-down, drag-out fight that had degenerated into my middle sister and I on the floor, pulling each other's hair and attempting to bite each other. Furious, he dragged us both out to the garage. As my father had a ferocious temper, we were already terrified about what kind of punishment we were about to receive.

"ALRIGHT! I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" He hands me a sledgehammer, then turns to my sister...."YOU'RE SMALLER, HERE'S AN AXE! NOW, IF YOU'RE BOTH SET ON KILLING ONE ANOTHER, JUST DO IT AND GET IT OVER WITH!"

At which point we both burst into tears and swear never to fight again. It was (relatively) effective, too...I don't think we really fought again for at least a fortnight, which was a bit of a record in our house.

Not really a physical injury, but it left lasting emotional trauma.

Oh, yes. And I once beaned the same sister with one of the large metal shoe-sizing devices they used to have in shoe stores...gave her a nasty gash on her forehead, a black eye, and turned the white of her eye an angry red. My mother was absolutely horrified, not only that I'd done it, but that I'd done it in public.

Same sister swears that I held her down and made her eat ants once, but I don't remember it.
(Fri 19th Aug 2005, 6:02, More)

» Well, that taught 'em

That taught him
For extra cash, I worked at a crap minimum-wage job for awhile. The owner was a complete bastard, and would regularly short-pay his poor student workforce. Because most of them were poor, young students, they didn't really understand that they had recourse.

He underpaid me one week. Fortunately, I was not a poor, naive student.

I sued him. And won. The original cost of the hours he didn't pay me? Somewhere in the neighborhood of $70. The cost to pay me the court fees, lawyer fees, and civil penalties? Over 25 times that.

That taught him.

And I got a nice, shiny new laptop.
(Fri 27th Apr 2007, 3:23, More)