And That's Why He's Perfect For Me

I know this is probably going to embarass The Perfect Man, but I have a story to tell.

I work in the legal department for a child welfare agency. It's not the greatest job in the world to read the things I have to read. But every once in a while, something good happens and that's what keeps me getting up for work in the morning. Well that and The Perfect Man nudging me in the ribs saying, "Bernie, the damn alarm's been ringing for 10 minutes".

Yesterday, something good happened.

We have children "in the system" who are over the age of 16 so cannot be in a foster home, but are under the age of 18 so still fall under our mandate. These kids live indepedently, but we serve as their "parents". We provide them with their (very modest) living expenses and they contact their workers like you or I would call our moms.

One of these kids in independent living has had a very rough go of it. He's in trouble a lot and he has a lot of anger issues (but I imagine the best of us would, given what he's been through in his young life). His worker told me yesterday that he's a good kid with a good heart who makes bad decisions. One of those bad decisions landed him in court for uttering threats. Now he's facing a month or more in secure custody.

This young man has two cats. His worker tells me he's barely able to take care of himself at times, but those two cats are the most loved and cared for animals she has ever encountered. She sent a plea to our agency asking if there were someone willing to take the cats in on a temporary basis so that our "child" would have one less thing to worry about during this turbulent time.

I called The Perfect Man. I didn't even get a chance to finish telling him why I was calling. I didn't even have to tell him that I was crying over this. He said, "Do you want to do this" and I said "yes". "Done", he announced.

And that's only one tiny, small reason why I love him so much and why he's so perfect for me.

Note to Reader: I volunteered to take the cats, but stipulated that if they were male, they had to be fixed, because we have three male cats at home. They were not fixed and so went to another loving foster home without existing cats.