International Cat Day
Workplaces often create systems for developing employee email names that follow a specific pattern. This was also true at John’s school, where each staff member’s email address followed the rule of first initial of the first name followed by the first four letters of the last name, making John’s email address “jloho.”
People who used his email address routinely quickly started calling him J-Lo after Jennifer Lopez. “Good morning J-Lo,” could be heard almost every morning year after year, even after the email format was changed. When asked about his odd name, John always quickly replied, “Obviously my svelte body easily caused the confusion!”
As a school counselor for over half of the building, John built long-lasting relationships with the kids he worked with. They enjoyed spending time with him, and came to him when they were experiencing difficult situations as well as at times they were just wanting to hang out. One day, a student came into his room, crying and holding a large cardboard box. “I brought my cat,” the young boy told him, eyes filled with tears. John knew immediately that he must be telling the truth, but still had to open the folds of the box to check inside for himself. Laying quietly in the corner of the box was a large adult cat.
“Why did you bring him to school?” John asked.
“For show and tell,” the boy replied. “but my teacher told me that I have to take him home. Cats can’t stay in school.”
Knowing that this was true, John asked the boy where he lived. The boy gave him his address, an address for a house that was several miles from the school. “Did you bring the cat on the bus?” John asked surprisingly, wondering how no one noticed a large meowing box on the long bus ride to school.
“Yes, but I have no way to get him home. No one at home has a car,” the boy answered.
John looked at the crying boy who was standing in the doorway carrying a large box that held his cat. He knew that there was no way to get the cat home during the school day, and he knew that the cat would not have a place to hide out. John decided to hide the cat in his office, and shared the idea with the boy. “You have to keep it a secret,” he explained to the boy. “I will take care of him during the school day here in my room. I’ll keep the door closed so that when I’m not in the room, he can’t escape and I’ll put my ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door so that no one accidentally comes in. At the end of the day, you can come back and take the cat home on the bus.” The boy nodded and calmly walked to class. At the end of the school day, the boy returned to John’s office, and carefully lifted the large box. John decided that instead of asking the boy to take the bus, he would drive the boy and his cat home. No one had known the cat had spent the day in John’s office. How John managed to hide the cat in his office for an entire school day has become the stuff of legend. For years people have asked each other, “Did you hear about the day that John hid a kid’s cat in his office?” The story has lived past John’s own life.
After the funeral, I returned to work for my first day back at school. I started working as a teacher at John’s school four years ago. It was a difficult day for me. Operating on part adrenaline, part fear, and part “get-er-done”, I walked into my classroom, legs wobbling beneath me. I sat down and started getting my materials together. It was already the 34th day of the school year, but because I had missed so many days with John’s illness, it felt like the first day for me. After only a few minutes, another teacher came in the room and asked if I had heard about the kitten in school. I assumed she was talking about the folklore legend of several years ago, and I told her that I had.
“Have you seen the kitten?” she asked me.
“Wait. There’s a kitten in school TODAY?” I asked, shocked.
“Yes, it’s in room 207. You HAVE to go see it. A kid brought it into school. It was found outside, all by itself, so he brought it to his teacher wondering what to do with her. There hasn’t been a cat in school since…… well since John’s room. This is the first time it’s happened in years.” she told me.
I quickly walked into room 207, where the door was closed most of the way. There, on the floor was a large box, and inside lay a tiny, fragile kitten.
I asked what was going to happen to the kitten. I was told that one of the staff members had decided to take her and give her a home. She decided to name the kitten J-Lo. Again, I believe in signs, and I believe that John had to know this kitten would be brought in on my first day back at school, the ONLY day a cat had come into the school in years. And once again, I was given the message that J-Lo will be OK.
Many staff members will remember the first story of a cat in school, as they were there the day it happened. Some of them will read my version and say to themselves, “That’s not what happened.” To that I reply: I’m sorry if some of the details of the story don’t match exactly how things happened the day John hid a cat in his office. I only know the story from John’s perspective, and I know the intent of the story, which I hope to have captured accurately even if some of the facts don’t fit.
And I have to believe that this post is “John Lohoff approved.”
If you, or someone you care about is dealing with grief, here are some tips for coping with grief from people who are dealing with it themselves!
