Paying Tolls

Driving my truck over America's roads, I am often confronted with toll booths and pay out the fare to cross the bridge. I make sure that I have enough change (or tokens) in the ashtray to meet the demand. Sometimes, if it is an especially long wait in line, I will reach for my cell phone and place a call to my "borrowed" grandmother- Grandma Davis. Since the passing of my maternal Grandmother several years ago, I'm fresh out of Grandparents. So Kimberly (my wife) allows me to borrow hers. Grandma Davis talks to me frequently on the phone sometimes for hours. I can honestly credit her with being responsible for keeping me awake especially during long hauls at night.

It's during these calls that Grandma Davis will disclose two factors in her life that causes her great concern: She's a shut-in, so she must rely strictly on others to run errands for he, and she has a cat she loves named Patches, and Patches has a voracious appetite.

I've been trying to tell Grandma Davis what a wonderful tool the Internet is and how easy computers are to use, but she'll have none of that "newfangled stuff" in her life.

One of Grandma's biggest worries comes when she finds people who will go to the store to buy food for Patches. The good Samaritans usually don't get enough cat food, or they don't get the right brand or the right flavor. Maybe they pay too much for the food, or stay gone to long causing her to wonder what happened to them. I'd heard this complaint from her so much recently, that I finally decided it was time to act.

While talking to her one day from a truck stop in Pennsylvania, I quizzed her on the exact type of cat food she prefers. She ran off the brands she likes what she pays for them and added she's always running out of the cans. I asked her to update me on her mailing address and as she complied, I finished filling out an online order form. I then explained to her that two cases of Patches favorite brand of cat food were on the way to her home. They would be delivered in 3-6 days.

I told her that I could set it up so that she could have cat food delivered to her door at regular intervals. That way she would never run out. Because of her situation, Grandma is of special interest to me. She needs every modern convenience I can locate for her. Besides, Patches is a good cat and a wonderful companion to her. Less stress on her means less stress for him.

Christina is another of my special interests. She's nine-years old and this child has a heart of gold. She's in a classroom of kids that I write to through the Trucker Buddy Program. Last winter, she found a kitten that someone had dumped. It was touch-and-go at first, but this female kitten survived. Christina named her Angel. Christina's family is not well-off and her father knew that they couldn't afford the type of care Angel would require. Christina knows full-well of my love for cats, for when I talk to her classmates, I discuss openly my life that encompasses cats. I suppose it was inevitable that she would contact me one day for help.

I had to read her email several times because verbs and adjectives are not her strong points, but the gist of the email was she needed to find a new home for her kitten and she didn't want it to "be died". I thought about that email all day as I drove my rig toward home. Once I arrived, I picked up the phone and rang her father. At the end of the conversation, I had arranged to pick Angel up to see if I could find her a new home. With cat carrier in hand, I headed out to their home. I was on their street searching for their address when my cell phone rang. It was Christina's father. He told me that he had a house full of weeping women who didn't want to let the cat go. I laughed and said, "So there was rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, eh?" He replied, "Big time". I told him that I was right outside and I could come in and talk with them about it, then we would see if there was anything I could do to help.

After speaking at length with him, I discovered that he too liked Angel, but it was the cost of the care that concerned him. I could appreciate that coming from a man with three kids; one about to start college, a wife, a mortgage and only one job. I told him that if he wanted to keep Angel, I could get her into a low-cost vet and take care of spaying and micro-chipping for them.

I informed him that this cat would be an ideal way to show his daughter what the responsibility of caring for a cat entails. Angel would be dependant on Christina to provide everything she needed to maintain a healthy, happy life. He took my words to heart and made it clear to his daughter that if she didn't do what she'd promised, he'd call me to come get Angel. I emphasized that I'd come with a surrender form in one hand and a cat-carrier in the other. The day suddenly fell into place, tears dried quickly and everyone was satisfied.

There are little things in life that all of us can do to assist one another. We can help cats and make the world a better place for everyone concerned. When my time in this life is over and my turn comes to cross the Rainbow Bridge, there might just be a toll booth waiting there as well. I'd like to have the peace of mind to know that I have enough in reserve to pay that toll before crossing over.