My First Pet

This post was inspired by Cardiogirl's post, "I will not experience the dog days of Summer, Fall, Winter or Spring"...

I was allergic to cats ever since I can remember.

One day my girlfriend convinced me to get a cat. I told her that I was allergic. She didn't believe me and she insisted that we go to a pet store to at least see if I was still allergic.

So we did and I felt okay. I thought that being in my own apartment (rather than my mother's moth-ball infested house) made me somehow less allergic. One of the kitty critters seemed real interested in me, poking his paw out at me and giving me kitty love eyes. He was a gray tabby fur ball with yellow-green eyes.

So he came home with me. He would sit on my lap and eat supper with me. He insisted on eating everything I ate, even broccoli. I kid you not.

I was glad that I didn't have the itchy watery eyes and the runny nose that I usually get around cats. But every day I found it a bit harder to breathe, even though I kept the cat out of the bedroom.

By the time I started taking Claritin and allergy shots, it was too late. I gave kitty up a month later to a nice young couple.

I felt the heaviness in my chest for a long time. But it was not so much asthma as a broken heart.