The veterinary waiting room gathers different kinds of love under the same fluorescent light.

Waiting rooms of that kind level people quickly. The person with the expensive carrier and the person with the cardboard box are holding the same fear, and nobody there is pretending the animal is only an animal. Attachments dismissed elsewhere as sentimental are visibly serious in that room, which is a relief and also exposing. Strip lighting is a strange setting for something so tender, and it is where a great deal of tenderness happens.

If you are the one waiting, you are allowed to be as frightened as you feel. If you are the friend, ask about the animal by name.