lyrics by Jackson Dawes

I like computers and I like volunteering so I started volunteering at the local animal shelter Their computers were a mess and they needed a lot of help with their central database None of that is important The main thing is that every time I walked into the animal shelter one cat would go crazy, jumping up on the bars of his cage And he only did it for me for some reason. His name was Claude, and he was born there at the shelter His mother Willow was a few cages away. Claude was very weird - He drooled all the time He would often fall down for no reason. He was oddly shaped. He was definitely a strange cat So I took him out of his cage one day and held him and he loved me and I loved him And I started visiting him every day at the shelter I would usually use my lunch break to drive over and play with him We talked a lot, and I promised him that I was going to get him a good home and I meant it. I called and emailed everyone I could to try to get someone to adopt him, but nobody would. I already had two cats in a small apartment But I just had to do it Claudie was my best friend. I would take him to work all the time my boss was from Poland and wasn't well-versed in American culture so I would tell him that it was National Bring Your Pet To Work Day or National Animal Liberation Day, or any one of a dozen other made-up things and he always said okay I think he knew I was conning him, but he was a nice guy and let it slide. We went to the park, we went to the store I would drive around with his paws up on the wheel next to mine We were inseparable. And Claude was so good with the new baby who would just sit there chewing on Claudie's tail and Claudie didn't care Claude had a great philosophy - he just didn't care about the small stuff. About 6 years later, I decided to take Ritalin for a few days just out of curiosity For about three hours after I took the first pill, my thinking changed everything became orderly in my mind After that, I just felt sick On Day 3 of the Ritalin, I had a vision that Claudie was going to die soon I tossed the pills, and the next day he died. His ashes are buried in the back yard I don't believe in heaven, intellectually or in my gut but I do try hard to leave open the tiny possibility that it exists because some day I want to enter the pearly gates and the first thing I'm going to do there is find my best friend ever.