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It's not just the gash that's worrying me.

I remember what Aunt Kate said, and it gives me a cold feeling in the stomach: In the back-alley jungle he'd last a year, maybe two.

Looking at Cat, right now, I know she's right.

But Cat's such a-well, such a cat.

How can I take him to be whittled down?

I tell Butch I'll be back down in a few minutes, and I go upstairs.

Mom's humming and cleaning in the kitchen.

I wander around and stare out the window awhile.

Finally I go in the kitchen and stare into the icebox, and then I tell Mom about the gash in Cat's leg.

She asks if I know a vet to take him to.

"Yeah, there's Speyer. It's a big, new hospital?good enough for people, even-with a view of the East River. The thing is, Mom, Cat keeps going off and fighting and getting hurt, and people tell me I ought to get him altered."

Mom wets the sponge and squeezes it out and polishes at the sink, and I wonder if she knows what I'm talking about because I don't really know how to explain it any better.

She wrings the sponge out, finally, and sits down at the kitchen table.

She says, "Cat's not a free wild animal now, and he wouldn't be even if you turned him loose. He belongs to you, so you have to do whatever is best for him, whether it's what you'd like or not. Ask the doctor and do what he says."

Mom puts it on the line, all right.

It doesn't make me feel any better about Cat.

She takes five dollars out of her pocketbook and gives it to me.

I get out the wicker hamper and go down to the cellar and load Cat in.

He meows, a low resentful rumble, but he doesn't try to get away.

Cat in the hamper is no powder puff, and I get pretty hot walking to the bus, and then from the bus stop to the animal hospital.

I get there and wait, and dogs sniff at me, and I fill in forms.

The lady asks me if I can afford to pay, and with Mom's five bucks and four of my own, I say Yes.

The doctor is a youngish guy, but bald, in a white shirt like a dentist's.

I put Cat on the table in front of him.

He says, "So why don't you stay out of fights, like your mommy told you?"

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