One of the Worst Days Ever

I wasn't going to blog about this, originally. I like to keep my blog lighthearted and fun and I just don't feel that everything under the sun is appropriate to post. But then I decided that my blog is somewhat of a journal and journaling your life sometimes means including the sad stuff too.

I just talked to my sister on the phone and asked her if she cared if I blogged about what happend yesterday. She said that she was kind of surprised that I hadn't already done so.

About a week ago, I cleaned my sister's teeth. When Dr. Bowers did the exam, he decided that there was a spot in her mouth that needed to be evaluated by the oral surgeon and possibly biopsied (to rule out oral cancer). I looked my sister right in the eye and said "Don't even tell mom. She'll only freak out." To say my mom worries is an understatement, and sometimes it's just better to leave her in the dark. Sorry mom. You know we have your best interest at heart when we do things like this.

Since yesterday was my day off, my sister and I met up early in the morning and I drove her over to the oral surgeon's office in Olympia. After an eval, the OS decided a biopsy was necessary because the location (side of tongue) is a high-risk area, but told Jenny not to loose any sleep over it because he really didn't think it was a cancerous lesion. A biopsy they did, under general anesthesia.

So I drove my sister home. She was pretty groggy from the anesthesia and pain meds. As we pull up to her garage...She was like "Oh my God...is that Fireball?"

Here's where the story gets really awful. If you are an animal lover, you may not even want to read this. Seriously.

We were both completely horrified to discover that my sister's cat had gotten trapped by the garage door. As we got out of my car, we hear her meow and I said "Oh shit, she's still alive." I knew this was not a good thing because we had been gone about 5 hours at that point and the cat was clearly suffering.

You know how automatic garage doors have that safety sensor that will stop the door if anything is in the path of the door as it closes? Sorry to have to be so graphic, but Fireball was stuck at the top, with the door closed all the way...with her head and arms inside the garage and back and legs hanging on the outside. We could tell she was paralized. The only way we could think of that she got into that position was that she was asleep on the door while it was open, then when it closed it pulled her down in and trapped her.

What made it even worse was that the garage door was jammed so we couldn't simply open it up to free up the cat, and we couldn't get into the house to manually crank open the door. My sister called her husband who was working far away and wasn't able come in any reasonable time frame. Then she called her co-worker, Mike, and her nephew, Troy, who happened to be in the area.

Long story short, after about another hour Troy wedged a long 2x4 into the tiny space in the door frame and pushed it just enough for the cat to fall out (we did try to catch her with a bin but missed...it really just kept getting worse.) I told my sister that I would take the cat into the vet and suggested that she stay back and rest (remember, she just had tongue surgery). She agreed, and Mike offered to go with me.

Mike: Do you want me to go with you so you don't have to do this by yourself?

Me: No, I'll be fine.

Mike: Are you sure?

Me: Yes.

Mike: Are you sure?

Me: Yes.

Mike: Are you sure?

Me: Yes.

Mike: I'll follow you.

Me: Ok.

Now don't think I am cruel for doing this...but I had taken a picture of Fireball trapped because I knew I would have to tell the story to the vet and honestly, I just didn't feel like explaining it. I just showed the picture (don't worry, I am not posting it on here.) The vet examined her and confirmed what was obvious: crushed lungs...snapped spinal cord...suffering...etc.

While the doctor did what she had to do I scratched Fireball behind her ear and said a silent prayer for her until it was all over.

In the parking lot my cell rang and I saw it was Jenny. I handed my phone to Mike and asked him if he'd please tell her. Then with that came the tears. I have known Mike for years, but I was embarrased for crying so I made a joke and said "Man! Can you believe that dumb cat?!...You'd think she was mine the way I am a big snotball like this." He gave me a big hug and said he was so sorry and he knows how hard it is to go through.

We loose our loved ones, our friends, our pets. Such are the experiences of life, right?

Today these flowers arrived at my house: