The Rest of the Story

Here is the rest of the story, as promised. Well, most of the rest of the story is here. If you want more, you’ll have to drop by for a chat.

After that call, Heather took me and my box, put us both in this big noisy metal box that jerked and bumped and glided along. They call those boxes “cars”, and I kind of liked that first trip. That must be because I was too sick to know better. Someday I’ll tell you about the evil side of cars.

But anyway, the car took us to this house, and Heather carried me and the box inside. Suddenly there was a lot of noise again. Three new faces staring at me inside my box, saying “Aww, how cute!” And “Oh, so sweet!” Boy were they SCARY. I hunched my back up as high as I could and hissed my most ferocious HISSSSS! Problem was, it came out sounding more like a sneeze then a hiss. All four faces had the nerve to smile at me.

Then one of them reached in and picked me up. “Sam, don’t let him bite you”! I knew that voice from the phone. Good, I scared this Frannie person. Sam wasn’t scared though, he just smiled at my attempt at biting- which I admit was pretty pathetic. He carried me to a warm room full of socks and cables and other cat toys. It looked like cat heaven must look. (I’m not allowed in there any more, wouldn’t you know).

Anyway, he put me down on a soft red blanket and petted me until I stopped trying to hiss. I started to like it, or maybe I just got too worn out to care. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in my box and smelling kitten chow. Mmmm. It smelled so good; I just had to try some. I let Frannie pick me up without even trying to bite her. Hey, it’s hard to be hostile toward someone who is feeding you.

I was still feeling really worn out, so I just ate a few bites and settled back down. I know I slept a lot over the next two days, that box was really comfy. The next thing I remember was seeing Heather again. I had been laying on Frannie’s desktop while she typed on this computer thing, and then there was Heather, scooping me back into my box.

“Okay Mom, I’ll take him to the shelter now. Are you sure you don’t want to keep him? He’s so sweet and cuddly”!

“No, I have enough with two cats here. He’s so cute, someone will adopt him.” Frannie gave me a little pat on the head and Heather carried me and the box back out to her car. Rumble, bump, bump, jerk, glide…

The car stopped and Heather got out. I could hear kittens crying, “Help us; help!” Then from farther away, “Thank you”. Heather got back into the car and just sat staring over toward the kitten voices for a minute. Then rumble, glide, jerk, bump, bump…. She carried the box back into the house. Yes, this house. My house.

“Mom, the place is closed until tomorrow and someone left a cage full of kittens sitting there in the sun” It’s like 90 degrees and they don’t even have water!” Heather was very upset. “I moved the cage to the shade, but I couldn’t leave this kitten there. Please, let him stay one more night? I’ll take him back there when they’re open tomorrow”.

Sure enough, on the following day Heather came back and put me back into the box. By this time I was really getting comfortable with Frannie. I just hung out wherever she was and let her spoil me all she wanted. It was very nice. Heather noticed this and said, “You know you want to keep him, don’t you? If you want, he can be your birthday gift from me. I’ll pay for his shots. Look what a sweet kitten he is”!

Frannie looked. Then she looked away. “No. Thank you for offering, but I really shouldn’t. Midnight isn’t even happy having Fluffy around”. She gave me a quick glance again and I put on my cutest face and tried to smile. “No”, she said.

Heather gave it another try. “I just keep thinking about all the kittens in that cage, so many kittens. Some looked just like this one. They won’t all be adopted, you know….”

Frannie didn’t reply to that. She just patted me on the head, gave me a little kiss, and said, “Bye, kitten”.

So, back to the car; rumble, glide, bump, rrrrrrring! That was new. Heather’s cell phone was ringing.

“You changed your mind, didn’t you? Yes, I’ll pay for his shots and neutering. Yes. I knew you would! We’re turning around right now”.

Jerk, bump, glide... home again. Home to stay.