“Sacrifices for Those we Love”
A micro memoir by Steven Dominguez (9).
I walked into the building, setting the carrier on the floor. I was devastated, as I had to say goodbye to someone I loved.
“Goodbye Jessie,” I said. I then left the animal shelter with my dad and got in the car. I started crying. We had just left Pets in Need, the same shelter we had adopted Jessie from three years earlier. A few days earlier I walked into the living room. My mom looked at me and spoke.
“Steven, we’re going to have to get rid of Jessie,” she said. I had known that she was already planning on doing this. I was still heartbroken, as Jessie had been our cat for three years and I had come to love her.
“Mom please,” I replied.
“She’s sick. She’s biting her leg to the point that it’s bloody every day. I'm pretty sure that she’s allergic to something in our house,” she told me.
I knew she was right. For almost two years, Jessie had been sick. She used to bite herself, trying to relieve some sort of irritation. Often, she’d end up bleeding all over our furniture. She would have open sores on her legs. There was something in our house causing this, but we didn’t know what that was. We had originally brought her to a vet, who gave her a cone to stop her from biting.
For those two years, she had to wear that cone constantly. She only was able to take it off when we supervised her. We knew our house was the problem because whenever we’d go on vacation, we’d leave her at the VCA. The caretakers would give her supervised breaks from her cone, where she would stop biting herself. As soon as we’d return, the people there would tell us that she had stopped biting herself. We would let her live without the cone. But then a few days later, she would start biting herself again.
She was miserable, I knew it. But I loved her and I didn’t want to get rid of her. I remember I cried that night. I hoped that somehow she could just get better. I knew that she would be ok, as we weren’t putting her down. But the feeling I had was horrible, knowing that someone I loved was going to go away forever.
The day finally came when it was time to give up Jessie. I remember taking a few final pictures with her and kissing her. It was then that she was placed in the carrier. The same carrier that she had originally come home to us in.
I got into the car with my dad and put the carrier on my lap. The car started moving and Jessie started meowing.
“It’s ok Jessie,” my dad said, in a nice tone. That was one of the worst car rides I had experienced because I knew that once we arrived, she’d be gone. We finally arrived at the shelter. I got out of the car and walked in with my dad. I set down Jessie.
“Thank You,” the volunteer said as we walked out. I remember getting into the car. I cried. I had just given up my cat, whom I had come to love. I was devastated, knowing that I wouldn’t see her again.
Looking back on this now, I’ve come to realize, that this was a necessary thing to do. Jessie was sick in our house and she couldn’t really be happy unless she lived somewhere else. I came to learn that sometimes you must make great sacrifices for those you love most. I don’t know what happened to Jessie, other than the fact that she was adopted by another person. I hope that she’s happy now and that her new family loves her as much as we did.