you can’t take a cat to Wal-mart. This I know for sure. I came upon this knowledge once hot summer night in Tennessee while visiting my niece Taylor.
Taylor and I were were visiting my best friend from high school Sherri when she showed us the two adorable kittens that she had just been given by a co-worker. These are so cute I thought…this is just what my mom needs to keep her company. It sounded like a brilliant plan at the time and I was very pleased with myself. Taylor was over the moon that Gran was going to be a cat owner and I was over the moon thinking my mom wouldn’t be lonely now that she would have a feline companion.
I had no idea what I was doing or what I would need for the cat. This seems to be a common thread that runs through and eventually snags most of my adventures. I thought if I took the cat to mother without the needed supplies she would be less likely to say yes. So I did the only thing I am better at headed to Wal-mart. When we arrived I realized that even though it was 9 p.m. in the evening it was still 92 degrees outside. I could hardly leave the cat in the hot van and leaving the cat and the eight year old seem like an even worse idea. Without any other option, I wrapped the cat up in one of our travel blankets, nuzzled her to my neck and pretended she was a baby.
This worked for about a minute before she clawed me and jumped out of my arms onto the pavement. Luckily the shrill sound of Taylor’s screams stopped the cat in her tracks along with a couple of wary Wal-mart customers. I reacted by throwing the blanket over the cat, capturing her in a much tighter “snuggle” and headed through the front doors. Taylor was looking very guilty at this point so I had to distract the greeter with chit chat while I sent her to retrieve the cart. She has not been on as many “adventures” with me as my children and had not yet learned to be cool in the middle of a crisis.
After making it past the greeter we headed to the pet section. En route I dropped the “kitten/baby” in the cart and proceeded to explain my theory on it being easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.
A sweet little lady with a motorized cart helped us select the basic items needed for the cat. Kitty litter, food and of course a pink and black leopard print collar with a bell. Just as we were heading to the checkout a security guard came up and said we were not allowed to have animals in the store. I begged forgiveness and Taylor explained to him that she would be in big trouble if we had to go to jail so he sent us to make our purchases and leave. Sixty dollars later we headed out the door with our kitten and all the caboodle we could carry.
Mother greeted us at the door listened to our story and proceded to spin us right around and back to the car to return the cat. Apparently she wasn’t as lonely as I thought and we were quite devasted.
By midnight the great kitten adventure had ended and we were back at home. We were both a little sad. We had spent a very eventful few hours with the little guy and we hated to see him go.
On the other hand, I knew for sure that Taylor would be the only kid to answer the question “what did you do on summer vacation?” with “we took a cat to Wal-mart!”.
