My mother has had a troubling time trying to get it right in her head about her once son is now her daughter. And that she needs to call me by my new name or to refer to me as she or her with others.
Please indulge me here for a moment. My mother has two sisters that from time to time come to visit with her. When they do, they stay at mom's house (which is right next door to mine). Mom also had two dogs that both, oddly enough, died on the same day last summer (August). Anyway, after the two dogs passed away, the two sisters came to visit mom for a while. It was during this time a stray cat was found lurking around mom,s back yard. Now one of my aunts just loves making pets out of strays. So, she begins luring this cat closer and closer day by day until the cat becomes accustomed to her and mom. Pretty soon this cat started living under one of the out buildings in mom's back yard and would regularly come morning and evening for it's daily feeding and attention.
All of a sudden, mom realizes she has a new pet to take care of! At first she wanted to take it to the humane society and have them find it a home. But, my wife and I suggested that since she does not have the two dogs anymore it might be enjoyable for her to just keep the cat around and have a surrogate, low maintenance pet! She ultimately agreed and so now it deserves a name. My aunt who started this whole mess had told mom it was a male cat, but, mom thought what the heck "I'm going to name him Becky" (after my aunt, lol). When mom told my wife and I about the name choice, to say the least I was a bit flustered over it. Yet, it's her cat now and we accepted her choice.
Now since it's a male cat and mom didn't know if he'd received any shots since birth, it would be a good idea to take him in and get the shots and also get the cat neutered since it lives exclusively outside. So, one Saturday morning my daughter came over to help grandma take the cat to the vet's office for vaccinations and leave it off for neutering. A couple hours later they returned..............cat in hand.
Both my daughter and my mother came over to my house just giggling like two school girls sharing a big secret. We asked what was so funny? Mom says, "ooh Donnie (as the hair on my neck stands up), your just not going to believe it, but, after the vet examined the cat, they told us that Becky is a girl"! So what once was a perceived and known as a male, yet, has a female name is, presto-chango; in reality a female! And, all is good. No problem with the disturbing news of how we only new him as a him, and now we have to embrace her as a her! Hhhhhmmmmm.......................?
Does anyone one catch the irony in this?
Dawn
