This is a #maineobviously story if I’ve ever seen one. I pulled it out of the Bangor Daily News archive; it was written by Ken Ward and originally ran back on March 10, 1981.
“What about the ones you leave behind?” the insurance man inquires when you balk at additional coverage. “They should be looked after.”
And to some people, that includes the family pet. When pets’ lives and welfare become the arbitrary decision of the survivors, often the easiest solution of the problem is to have what has been an integral part of the family put to sleep.
But not for Millie.
When Wendell Carmichael died recently three months after his wife Dorothy’s death, Millie, the family cat for 18 years, was the cause for consternation for Carmichael’s three sons.
Virgil, Richard and Bruce are part of the closely-knit Carmichael family that operated the Quality Bakery on Ohio Street in Bangor, serving the area with fresh bread, doughnuts and pastries for more than 35 years. Millie was one of the family, sleeping on the foot of the bed, or in someone’ arms throughout the 18 years. The black-and-white mixed-breed cat is the equivalent of 126 human years.