undocumented economic damage

This has nothing to do with computers, business, or Acorp, but I have to write it. We lost our 12-year old tabby cat Taeki to contaminated food sold to us by Hill's Prescription Diet (W/D) on March 15, 2006. A lawyer sent us a claim form, and we're supposed to list the economic damage we suffered due to Taeki's loss. They were even kind enough to include a section for "Explanation of Undocumented Economic Damage." You know, that's not the point. The point is that our companion animals are more than the sum of their "economic costs". Here is my response to "undocumented economic damages:"

We don't have a lot of documentation because we have moved twice and changed banks twice since Taeki's death. Taeki was my first "real" pet as an adult. I got him as a kitten, and in essence we "grew up" together, even though I was already an adult when I received him. I actually knew and loved Taeki even before I met my wife. He was with me through the start and flourish of two businesses. He pounced and crawled up the legs of my Taekwondo students as a kitten [hence his name TAEKI for Taekwondo Kitty], and he stayed up late nights with me as I worked on client's computer systems and web sites.

When he got sick, I was so busy servicing my clients, trying to sell my business, and getting ready to move that I didn't pay enough attention to him. Such a bad pet parent; I wonder if I could have saved him if I had been paying more attention to him, the way he paid attention to me, and took care of me...

The morning that he neared his death, he came into my room and woke me up. I came down on the floor beside him, and held him as he took his final breaths... Such a brave and strong, unselfish cat, to come and seek me out to say goodbye, instead of going off to die alone in a dark place as most animals are wont to do. I only hope I was able to comfort him a little, to express my love, and to ease his transition out of this world.

$900 is a joke...a sick, sad joke. I could go on about how I took time off from my clients at $75/hr in the days after his death, and tally up the time and money, but that's not what it's about. It's about his life, and his value as a living creature to myself and my wife.

A year or so after Taeki's death, we rescued another kitten from the humane society. We had costs associated with that too, and I hear a "replacement" pet can be reimbursed... But this kitten, Mimszy, was not a "replacement" for Taeki. She is loved in and of herself, not as a replacement pet, but because she loves us and we love her.

Nothing can ever replace Taeki, and especially not $900. He was a loyal friend and companion, through thick and thin, through many things that most people never know or could even guess about, for over 12 years.

$900...Is that the going price for unconditional love? Sad...

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