The snow’s all gone; the grass is greening and there are buds on the trees. Was there really a windstorm with blinding snow a couple of weeks ago? It’s not even June yet and I’m feeling like it’s spring and spring means it’s time for some feeble version of cleaning.
I decide to tackle paperwork first. I gather up the fistfuls of vet bills we’ve accumulated since October. The newest addition from yesterday’s fourth round of chemo for Catie is still on the kitchen table; the rest have been unceremoniously stuffed between the microwave and the kitchen cupboard. I don’t need to look at the totals; I have a running tally in my head. I take them upstairs to the office, gingerly pry open the bursting file drawer in my desk. I know there’s a folder in here somewhere labelled “Vet.”
Ah. Here it is. I missed it at first because it’s alarmingly thick but I quickly figure out it’s not all Catie or Riley related material. Here’s a phone bill from 2005 that I assume I paid; an old tax receipt; a midterm exam of mine; and my daughter’s high school diploma. Here’s Catie’s Certificate of Achievement from Puppy Training; and Riley’s marks from Beginner’s Obedience Graduation. He scored 94.5 out of a 100. He botched the “figure eight” but made up for the lost marks with bonus tricks: kiss, rollover and speak.
This is a mess, I think. I’m about to surrender because I’m already getting bored when I come across two other serious-looking certificates. I think I perhaps have found my children’s long lost birth certificates but no, the two pieces of paper are from the Canadian Kennel Club.
I have a vague recollection of submitting a name to Catie’s breeder for registration but this can’t be right. Lady Caitlin Galadriel. Oh, but yes, I remember now. We had to come up with three names, not one, but what were we thinking? My husband and I must have just finished an all-nighter of watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy because I’m pretty sure that’s where Galadriel came from and wasn’t it Cate Blanchett who played that part?
We don’t take responsibility for the name on the Riley’s registration. At all. In fact, we didn’t get back to his breeder until it was past the date for submission. My husband I are lousy with paperwork. Because we were so delinquent, the breeder took it upon herself to complete and submit the documents with the following name: Marbrook Max A Million.
Not even close to Riley, really, but it’s just a piece of paper after all.