Change Of Pace Time

TIME FOR A MID-WEEK STRETCH
Tired of all the Fairgrounds and Budget drama? Me, too. Here's a little personal story to brighten your day.



WARNING - CAT STORY AHEAD
For the past few months there has been a strange cat wandering our neighborhood. The local "cat ladies" were in a tizzy because they suspected "she" was preggers. That sets the scene...

POGO STICKING CAT
For a few weeks I've heard "something" jumping over my front gate, right beside my office. Never saw a critter, but suspected it might be a cat or one of the numerous squirrels that inhabit our neighborhood... never gave it much thought. Then, last Sunday, as I interrupted some very important television watching to make a supervisory visit to my wife who was sweeping beside our dormant dune buggy - poor girl needs constant supervision - I saw this cat jump our front gate, see us standing beside the buggy and immediately bounce right on over my neighbor's fence like it was on a pogo stick.

DUH!
Well, the light came on for both the sweeper and supervisor and we decided to check the dune buggy. Now, understand, this old Meyers-Manx buggy has been sitting there, covered, for several years. It's street-legal and licensed and insured, but our buggying days are over. So, there it sits, beside the house, all snuggly wrapped in a nice brown plastic tarp - secure from weather and anything else, or so we thought.

KITTIES AMONG THE NUTSHELLS
When we carefully pulled off the tarps - there's another one under the brown one - and peeked inside we found four kittens scrunched behind the passenger seat. There they huddled, on the carpet and my half-roll of paper towels, amidst nutshells apparently deposited by squirrels before Momma Cat decided it was a lovely place to drop her brood.

WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO DO?
Well, this event required a convening of the neighborhood "cat ladies", in even more of a tizzy now. Much discussion ensued about what to do with the kitties - I returned to my important television-watching, leaving them to decide, with the admonition that the cats were going, and soon. They decided we should cover up the buggy again because they looked too young to move - 3 weeks old, maybe.

TOO YOUNG TO JETTISON
The next day, Monday, my personal sweeper - as a committee of one - inflated her business telephone bill trying to find some entity to take the felines off our hands. No luck. The kitties were too young - Drat!

LOTS OF "GATE" ACTIVITY
In the meantime, I kept hearing something climbing my gate during the day. Couldn't see it and didn't want to disturb it if it was Momma Cat coming to feed the kitties. The only thing worse than a litter of critters in my dune buggy would be a litter of dead critters in my dune buggy!

GONE!
That evening I got a call from one of the "cat ladies", demanding that I go inspect the buggy. So, since my personal sweeper was out, I was required to stop what I was doing and drag my old carcass outside at sunset and uncover the buggy - fully expecting a protective Momma Cat to pounce on me. Did I mention I'm not a "cat guy"? So, I dragged the covers back and, BINGO!, no kitties! Seems Momma Cat had been moving them, one at a time, from their little nest in my buggy to somewhere else - thank goodness. I'm still trying to imagine her, kitten in her mouth, leaping my six-foot gate and then carrying each one to a new safer place - four times. It took her all day.

FIRST THE KITTIES, NOW THE BUGGY
So, with that behind us - and with friends and strangers still calling about wanting one of the kitties - the next step is to finally get rid of the buggy. Know anybody who wants a project buggy? Happy ending all around - I think.