The Sad Story of Emo   

Jonquil

Once I had a great story, but I had no idea what to do with it. I decided to take a class in journalism, mostly for my own development, but also to put this story into circulation. 

One day the instructor asked us if we had a story. I deliberated but held back. The teacher awaited a show of hands, but none went up.

“Nobody has a story? You’ll have to do better than that. There isn’t always something newsworthy, but you have to make a living”.

I took this as my cue and raised my hand.

“Go ahead; tell us what it’s about”.

“It’s about the death of a fifteen year old cat”, I replied.

“What makes that news? That’s a reasonable age for a cat to die”.

“First, most rural, outside cats are not found dead. Second, many found are stray cats and nobody knows their age. Third, this cat weighed 20 pounds and had been missing since the evening before his body was found.”

“Go on; let’s see what you can do with this.”

“There were three houses around a curve in the road. When the owner of the house we’ll call no. 3 remarried and his wife gave birth, they stopped caring for their ginger colored female. She wandered around and eventually found a home in house no. 2. She also weighed in at 18-19 pounds, much too much for her size and eventually became stricken with diabetes. The attitude of the cat’s second family was “Easy come, easy go” and within a week she disappeared, most certainly dying in the brush. Shortly thereafter, the big tom from house no. 1 began to appear at house no. 2 looking very mournful. Left with a big bag of food, and remembering an occasion when the two cat owners split a giant bag of food, and the woman in house no. 1 never paid her share, the people in house no. 2 began feeding the big tomcat. He gradually became a member of the family. He had sired many generations of cats, but some time before, his previous owners had him neutered, probably tired of all the fighting wounds he displayed. This prevented him from making females pregnant, but not from fighting. 

“He was a classic cat, never giving in until he got what he wanted. He also thought biting was typical cat behavior, so, as much as they wanted him inside with them, his new owners suffered too many bites and tossed him out over and over. They never knew where he was when he went out and never discussed him with his previous owners. A couple years later a new cat took up residence at his old house. Emo spent more and more time with his new owners. On the other hand, he never got over his biting habit, making it difficult to love him.