My brother,Steve loves all kinds of animals, but all of his pets seemed destined for tragedy. Steve had a male siamese cat, named Padywak. Being about the age for him to go looking for females, he wanted out of the house. We tried to keep him in, but he carried on so much that we finally let him out. Two or three days went by without a sign of Padywak. I think Steve was in the sixth grade. I was in high school. Our schools were close together and Dad always took us to school. While driving to school, we found Padywak. He was in the road, smashed by a car, dead. All three of us saw him, but no one said a word. We each didn't want to upset the other. We talked about it after school.
The most tragic and remebered story about Steve's pets, happened when Jan and I were going somewhere, probably shopping. Steve had a new puppy named Rascal. He was a cute little black puppy with curly hair. Steve was excited to have him. Jan and I failed to notice Rascal sleeping under the car next to the back tire. Jan started then engine and put the car in grear. As we rolled forward we heard a yelp. We knew that we had rolled over Rascal. Jan felt horrible. So did I. I especially felt bad for Jan and Steve. While I was holding Rascal on my lap, he died. I had never seen an animal die before. It was awful. Stephen cried for three days. I think Jan still feels bad.
Steve had some pet gerbils and a white rat. He was using the rat for a science project. He built a maze. His plan was to give the rat a drop of alcohol and find out how it would affect the mouse as it ran the maze. When he put the dead mouse in the maze, it went to sleep. After the science fair, Steve put the rat in the cage with the gerbils. The gerbils ate it. Steve was furious at the gerbils. He took them back to the pet store and bought a dog.
In his adoult life, living with Kathy, he has had a few cats. When they are sick, he tries everything to make them well. Sometimes there is just nothing that can be done. As sad as it is, he has to say goodbye to his loving companions. I think they know that they are loved.
