There was a haunted look...
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There was a haunted look in Old Tom's eyes and he wouldn't eat. So Sally took him to the vet. There she was horrified to learn the poor beast had lost three pounds, apparently due to a rotten tooth and a massive sinus infection. Probably if he had been the only cat who lived with Sally, she would have noticed sooner. As it was, the food she put down disappeared; it had only been during the last couple of days that she had paid special attention to Old Tom. With food right in front of him, he was quietly starving to death because he had no way to tell her he was sick. But three pounds! That was nearly one-fourth of his entire body weight. This problem had to have been going on for some time, but she had failed to see it. The vet kept Old Tom to start him on antibiotics and to take the tooth out. After a few days, when she had him home again, his appetite began to come back. But best of all, the haunted look had left his eyes. He must have been in dreadful pain, with no way to ask for help, or even to understand that he needed help. It struck Sally, as she thought about it, that in some ways Old Tom's situation wasn't all that different from some people's spiritual circumstances -- hungry, with a feast before them, but some dreadful pain preventing them from taking as they slowly wasted away. -- Fannin
