Carrying the Message

Tom was recovering from a "pill slip." He was experiencing all the agony of remorse, depression, guilt, mood swings, and futility that characterizes withdrawal. Because of the communicability of the illness of alcoholism, these emotions were "caught" by the family. At the peak of our mutual despair, our bright-eyed kitten turned up missing from home. Late in the evening, a small, faint, squeaky meow was barely heard. On the threshold lay a huddled, battered kitten. He was a victim of a hit-and-run driver, and he had sustained three fractures. How had this wee, crushed animal dragged himself home? Tom now found another creature more broken in body and spirit than he was.