Shepherd Farm

This past Friday, my first cat Darrow went to the Rainbow Bridge.  She was actually my first “pet.”   I adopted Darrow from the DC Animal Shelter 15 years ago.  It seems like a lifetime ago now – but I adopted Darrow when I lived in a studio apartment in Washington, DC and spent my days and nights working in a law firm.  So enamored with the practice of law at that time that I named Darrow after Clarence Darrow – a famous trial lawyer.  

Darrow was a beautiful black tuxedo american shorthair cat.  She was gentle and sweet and had the biggest softest green eyes you could ever imagine.  I adopted Darrow when she was only 6 months old.  She was small and energetic and would race around my small apartment, jumping from table to day bed, to bookcase in a single bound.  When she was finished with her aerial lap around the studio, she would sit in the sun on the windowsill and groom herself – her shiny black fur healthy and full.

Darrow taught me how to care for animals – the responsibility, the rythm of her schedule, the attentive eye needed to determine if she was healthy — or not.  One of my favorite “you are too clueless to have a cat” stories from my early days with Darrow is one that I love to tell –  as a lesson that no matter how clueless you are about animals at the start – you can always learn to be a good “owner.”  So here is the story (as you read this story know that I grew up with dogs, not cats):

The Saturday afternoon that I left the Shelter with Darrow, I left with a handful of pamphlets about diseases that could threaten my cat – most of them she had been vaccinated against before we left – but there was one that scared me “upper respiratory infection.”  That one sounded pretty sinister.  A cat could be fine one day and then the next be wheezing and sick and soon after perish.  How awful I thought. 

Darrow had been home a couple of days in the apartment and she was so quiet.  She was eating and was reasonably affectionate – but quite reserved.  By the third day – she started to make a sound I had not heard before.  It sounded like a deep wheeze.  I was concerned.  I listened, looked, prodded.  When I picked her up and held her – she wheezed a bit more.  Horrors I thought.  It was late at night and the vets were closed.  I went back to that adoption folder and reread that pamphlet on upper respiratory infection.  I was convinced – Darrow was sick.

I had to find an emergency vet.  Being a first time pet owner, I somehow determined that the closest 24 hour vet was in Alexandria, Virginia.  So off I went to the vet.  When Darrow was in the cat carrier in the back seat of the car – her wheezing seemed to subside.  I got her into the vet’s office and relayed my patient profile to the vet.   I pulled her out of the cat carrier and held her in my arms for the vet.  As soon as I got her in my arms, she started the soft deep wheezing again.  That is it – I told the vet.  He looked at me sort of strangely and said “let’s get her temp.”  As soon as the vet inserted the rectal thermometer into Darrow to take her temperature – the “deep wheezing” ceased immediately.  The vet assured me that the temperature was normal and began to laugh.  What is so funny I thought – quite annoyed.  That sound you heard – that “deep wheeze” he told me was this cat “purring.”  “The quickest way to put an end to that wheezing is to take her temp.”

So there you have it – Darrow was the beginning of a long line of beautiful relationships that I have come to have with many other cats, dogs, and horses.  Fortunately for all those who have since been in my care, Darrow was also the beginning of a long journey of learning. 

I miss you sweet Darrow and thank you for all that you were.