Honey, Can You Drop This In La Sal  A Cat’s Tale (Tailless) 

First, a little explanation about my last column.  Someone made an editorial change which defeated the whole gist of my article.  Sort of made me seem like a blithering idiot!  And the jury is still out on that.  Besides, this newspaper already has an idjet writing each week.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the CG, he is a dear friend and the best mentor and supervisor I’ve ever had but nonetheless, an idjet. 
The heading to my column should have read “Elko, Heber City, La Sal” introducing our village’s recent Cowboy Poetry Night.  Does that make more sense?  Now since my feathers are somewhat unruffling, I’ll proceed with this week’s subject. 
Screech – that is the sound of my soap box being pulled out upon which I’m standing to deliver a little tale of sorrow and a little vitriolic diatribe.   
It seems that La Sal is a favorite dumping ground for unwanted pets.  Those would not occur so often if folks would spay and neuter their pets!! 
Several weeks ago my partner and I were returning from collecting the morning’s mail.  We spied a little black, furry critter in the middle of the snow packed road.  He was clearly visible. However, a pickup coming the other direction just ran right over him.  Didn’t even try to avoid hitting the little guy.  Being a high clearance vehicle, it spun the little dude around but did not kill him. 
My spouse jumped from our car to ascertain the extent of his injuries, but he was having nothing to do with that.  We could see he was bleeding and his tail was now as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.  He ran towards the neighbor’s house so we figured he was theirs and they would take care of him. 
The next night, our granddaughter-in-law came over carrying a small cardboard box.  Inside – you guessed it, a bedraggled little black kitty.  He was cold, fur matted and tail still very much injured.  One more night in the open and he would have been a goner.  We all agreed that he was dumped off in La Sal by someone who no longer wanted him. 
My spouse has doctored many a horse and cow in his career and truth be told, even a few cats along the way.  He administered some animal ointments while our granddaughter fed the starving little guy bits of kitty treats.  An injured lip made it hard to eat but he was so starved. 
We called our good friend Pam who is a cat lover.  She agreed to take the kitty and foster him.  He was set up in a comfy bed in the laundry room and left for the night with plenty of food and water.  Checking om him the next morning, he was found exploring the room after having eaten lots more kitty kibble.  Hubby gathered him up and took him to his new home where Pam had a room, bed and potty all set up for him.  We knew she would also soon be calling the Vet to have him checked out. 
Sure enough, that’s just what she did.  He did require some surgery, mainly a tailectomy to remove his broken appendage.  While that was going on, his boy part near the tail were also removed.   
Now I know you’ve probably had your kids do this to you, I know mine have:  “Can I keep him?”  It seems one of the vet techs who helped with the surgery fell in love with our bedraggled little fur ball and wanted to know if she could keep him.  Pam called to confer with me.  She was concerned about taking on a young pet at her age, worried that he would outlive her.  I understand entirely as I have the same fear with my young felines.  We agreed that his best bet was to go live with the vet tech and her four inside cats.  Pam made sure he would be inside before she would agree to give up foster care. 
They say cats have nine lives.  Well for sure this guy shot one when he was “dumped” and another when he was run over.  They also say that cats land on their feet.  In this case, our little kitty sure did. 
Bottom line:  the solution to your unwanted pet problems is not “Honey can you drop this off in La Sal?”