The Hospital Cat

Henry   ---   We interns in Memphis lived on the sixth floor of the hospital.  A cat lived with us.  I don’t know where it came from, or how long it had been there, but it took up with me, a cat fancier, and would take its naps on my pillow.  It was a black and white female and carried the name of Mary Ruth.  Also on the sixth floor was the hospital blood bank, and Mary Ruth, as cats are prone to do, liked to prowl.  Unfortunately this feline excursion was not fancied by the blood bank director who was probably a dog person as she certainly did not take to Mary Ruth or her presence in the blood bank.  The end result was she did away with Mary Ruth.  It was not a violent end, just a simple gesture, a gift to a blood donor who left with Mary Ruth, and the hospital cat was  never to be seen again.  However, this was not the end of the hospital cat saga.   A stray black kitten appeared, origin unknown, and took Mary Ruth’s place in the interns’ quarters and made its home in my room.   In our interns’ group was a hulk of a fellow from east Tennessee who had a black heart.  One spring day the kitten was sunning itself on my windowsill, and this intern came into the room, noticed the kitten on the windowsill, calmly came over and to my astonishment pushed it off, and out the window it plunged down six floors.  I could hardly believe the callous act.  I said, “ Ray, why in the world did you do that?”  He looked out the window and remarked, “I just wanted to see if it landed on its feet”.  I rushed down the six flights, not waiting for the elevator, and found the kitten, stunned, but alive.   I took it into the hospital, had it x-rayed and found no broken bones.  It recovered, I am happy to say, and took the place of Mary Ruth as the hospital cat.          Will Meriwether