Ms. Sawyer and Honey

Ms. Sawyer, a Northeast DC woman ,in her 50’s, is barely making it through life. She is able to survive from one day to the next only with the help of two friends: her social worker, Ms. Baxter, and her cat, Honey.  Together, they make a great team with Honey filling in the hours between Ms. Baxter’s visits.

“Ms. Sawyer’s cat has been her best—in fact, her only—friend for many years,” the social worker points out. “Honey gives her what most of us get from friends, family, work, neighbors…In Ms. Sawyer’s case, all that comes from a single cat.”

Someone gave Honey to Ms. Sawyer years ago after Honey injured her leg and it had to be partially amputated. Ms. Sawyer has her own difficulties, both emotional and physical, and the idea was that the two could support one another. It worked.

At least it did until a tumor sprouted on Honey’s amputated leg and grew rapidly. The resulting wound soon became infected and the infection spread up the leg. Ms. Baxter arranged to get Honey and Ms. Sawyer to an animal hospital. There it was determined that, given the extent of the infection, the leg needed to be amputated. However, there was no way that Ms. Sawyer, barely scraping by on a low and fixed income, could afford the surgery.  The hospital referred her to the League.

The next day, Ms. Sawyer brought Honey and $250 she managed to scrape together into the League’s Medical Center, and the cat was admitted for surgery. Given the cat’s age—Honey is 10 years old— and the fact that he also has FIV, League veterinarians told Ms. Sawyer that Honey’s chances of making it through the surgery were about 50/50.

But Ms. Sawyer was adamant that they proceed. She said she believed in her cat’s ability to pull through and that she had an obligation to do everything she could for him.

Honey did pull through.  Three days later he was back in his Northeast Washington home, and the human/feline pair was again taking care of each other. Because that’s what friends do.