Dr. Holt, Leon and the Dead Cat

Back when I was growing up we took our pets to Dr. Holt in southeast Tyler.  At that time his office was located just inside the loop on Old Troup Road (on the back side of what is now Southeast Crossing Center). 

Now... Dr. Holt's office did not seem to be the place for pampered pets. Mainly because of his assistant, Leon.  Leon was a well meaning guy, but he seemed to be born without the finesse gene or any kind of ability to be delicate or careful with the animals.  Leon was very rough with the animals.  On several occasions I witnessed Leon manhandling my pets on the examination table so Dr. Holt could poke and prod away at them.  The animals usually left the vet more traumatized than they arrived.

On one particular day during my freshman year at Tyler Junior College I found myself in need of Dr. Holt's services.  After getting home from work early, my mother informed me about one of our cats being sick.  I gathered up the cat, put it in a pet carrier and headed for Dr. Holt's office.  It was late in the day, so I was racing to get to his office before closing time.

I got to Dr. Holt's office.  He ushered me right in and instructed... "Leon... get Mr. Kitty Cat out of the carrier and prepare for examination."  Leon put on these big elbow length industrial gloves and reached into the pet carrier.  A few seconds later I heard the cat screeching, hissing and clawing the inside of the carrier.  Leon reached further in, grabbed one of the hind legs and pulled the cat out with the subtleness of the Frankenstein Monster. 

As the cat cleared the carrier and Leon got his other hand on it, the cat went silent and fell over onto the examining table.  Dr. Holt, Leon and myself paused for a split second.  Leon broke the silence with... "Uh... that kitty cat is dead!"  Lifting a leg and dropping it.

I thought to myself... "Dead"!  Dr. Holt grabbed what looked like an extra large Q-tip and began to poke in the cats mouth and ears.  "Well... that's that.  Who knows?  Cat's get into all kinds of things.  Do you want me to just get rid of the body?"  I was kind of suprised and shrugged in an affrimative manner.

Dr. Holt patted me on the back and hurried me to the front door.  As he opened the door he said... "That will be twenty dollars."  Suprised and stupified... I reluctantly pulled a twenty dollar bill from my wallet and handed it to him.  He immediately put it into his wallet.  Next thing I knew he was pushing me out the front door, it closed and I heard it lock.  I thought to myself... "That's twenty dollars the IRS will never hear about.  Twenty bucks for my cat to die..?".

I got into my car and pulled around to leave the parking lot.  As I cleared the side of the building, I could see Leon walking across the back parking lot toward the dumpster.  When he got within about 15 feet, Leon threw the body of my dead cat across the rest of the parking lot hitting dead center of the dumpster.  He then turned and with a little end of the week spring in his step, headed back toward the back door. 

I thought to myself... "For twenty bucks I could have done that."