The enjoyment of someone else's unwanted child

To some the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion spurs discussion about somebody who didn’t want a child and somebody else who would desire that child. Christmas is also subject to such discussion since Jesus was the result of an unplanned (at Mary's end) pregnancy. For me the week after Christmas is when I think of the value of an unwanted child.

In 1989, I visited my parents’ house the Saturday after Christmas. I parked across the street from their house.

A black kitten was on the sidewalk on that side of the street. After I parked and exited my car the kitten followed me across the street. I stopped before walking up the driveway. The kitten stayed by me. I then walked up the driveway. The kitten followed me. He also followed me on the walkway between the driveway and the porch. When I walked up the steps of the porch the kitten also joined me.

The kitten stayed on the porch. My mother opened the door. Although the kitten wasn’t allowed inside he remained on the porch after my mother closed the door. Eventually, my parents decided to take him inside.

My parents were concerned about the incumbent cats, both in terms of spreading illness and in terms of acceptance, so they kept the kitten in the garage for a couple of days. When nobody claimed him and he seemed safe for the incumbent cats, he was placed inside the house.

We believe that Pepper had been an unwanted Christmas present who was taken to another neighborhood and abandoned. He was somebody else’s unwanted child and somebody else’s unwanted present, and 35 years later it still saddens me to think that Pepper was unwanted before he was taken to my parents’ street. He certainly wasn’t unwanted after he was given a new home.

Pepper got along well with the incumbent cats. His desire to be wanted made him different from the other two cats. The older male cat was defensive when anybody sought to pet or move him. The female cat was shy and usually avoided people. Pepper loved to be handled.

The two older cats both passed away in 2004. When the yellow lab passed away in 2005, Pepper became my parents’ final pet.

For four days during the October 2007 fires, I didn’t leave my neighborhood. That Thursday after receiving a call from my parents that Pepper had deteriorated to the point where he needed to be put down, I went to my parents’ house to see Pepper one final time. He had been a good cat for the nearly 18 years my parents had him.

Pepper was cremated, and his ashes were buried in the back yard next to the two other cats and the dog. Animal-shaped carved stones in the back yard identify where they are buried.

My parents were in their early 70s at the time and weren’t sure about being able to take care of another pet throughout the pet’s lifetime. When my daughter who had a pet rabbit was in college, she stayed with my parents and the rabbit became a household pet, and that daughter later stayed overnight with my parents along with her dog, but my parents were never the primary caretakers of a pet after Pepper passed away.

Pepper may have been someone else’s unwanted child and unwanted present, but he brought enjoyment to my family during his lifetime. He might not have been valuable to the people who didn’t want him, but he was loved by those who gave him a home.