Cook Kills Cat

Ann Kroeker has a Food on Fridays blog post, inviting anyone to link up and share a story about food.
This is it:

Whether this story is true or not, I'm not sure. It was told to me 30 years ago before anyone had PC's. The woman who shared it, told it like it was true about someone she knew. It would be considered urban legend now. But truth is stranger than fiction.

One Sunday afternoon, Martha had made plans for company. As she prepared the meal, she left the lasagna out to pop in the oven at the last minute. Between dealing with the children, setting the table and cleaning herself up, the lasagna was left alone on the counter too long. When she came back in the kitchen, she saw the cat up on the counter, licking its lips. Mad at the cat, she tossed him out on his ear. Desperate, without a backup plan, she smoothed over the top and added more cheese before cooking it.

The afternoon was a great success, the meal wonderful and fellowship rich. As the last guest left, out of the corner of her eye Martha saw the cat laying limp on the porch. Wondering why it was so still, she went to pick it up, only to find it stiff. Dead.

Horrified, she figured it had been food poisoned from the lasagna. Feeling ashamed and embarrassed, Martha called each guest, confessing the fiasco, apologizing and advising each one to go to the hospital, to ward off imminent death.  

In the middle of these teary phone calls, the doorbell rang. Irritated and not in the mood, she answered it. Her neighbor is standing there crying. Gulping, she tells about running over the cat on accident. The neighbor didn't want to disturb the gathering, so placed the dead cat on the porch until everyone had gone home.