lauren, one of chase's classmates, lives a couple of houses down from us. she has an older sister, alli. they come over to play in the backyard nearly every day after school. the other day, lauren and aiden found an orange, stray cat wandering around out front. aiden especially loves kitties, and it turned out that lauren was pretty enamoured by them as well. so, these two somehow coaxed it into our front yard and "mothered" it for a while. i would not let aiden do anything besides pet it's back. lauren, on the other hand was picking it up and trying to carry it everywhere with here. this is where i will tell you that i knew that this was not a good idea, but my gentle warnings were not really making any difference. the cat finally got tired of it and ran off. i had not thought about that cat again. until today.
all the kids were playing in out backyard this afternoon when lauren spotted the cat again. she came to me and asked if we could feed it. i told her that i didn't have any cat food and she said that she didn't either and that she only had dog food. i told her that maybe the cat would like her dog food. she ran home to get some and came back empty handed. "my mom said that i couldn't waste our dog food on a cat." i said, "ah...good point. maybe you could just give it some water." she said, "your water is closer than my water." aiden was begging me to come see the cat with her, so we all went to find him/her. colton and chad were at colt's baseball practice, so it was just me with the rest of the kids. chase, being allergic to cats and dogs sensed danger and immediately went inside. so, there we are...me holding annslee, lauren and aiden petting the cat, and alli and her friend watching, and chase standing in the dining room window peering at us over a small notebook with a pen in hand. the little girls really wanted to give the cat something to eat and kept asking what we could feed it. i asked our neighbor if the cat was theirs. he told me that it was not, but that it had come to their backdoor last night and they had given it some cat food. he said that his wife had checked it over and that it was declawed. that made me worry a little, because i knew that it could not protect itself without its claws and i started imagining it being lost and hungry. i turned around and looked at the dining room window and saw chase still standing there, shaking his head no...as if he already knew what i was thinking. alli's friend said that maybe her mom would let her keep it. so, i went and opened a can of tuna. the cat ate, and alli's friend called her mom. she told her she could keep it, but that she had to find a way to get it home. now, i am no cat expert, but i do know well enough to know not to put it in my car with my baby, my 5 yr old, my son...who is allergic, and the girl who's parents don't even know me. so, the girl asked alli if they had a leash. now, at this point, i did question the decision to put a cat on a leash, but this was her cat now and annslee was getting fussy and i needed to start dinner. alli came out with a huge dog leash and i watched as they tried to get it on the cat. i said, "so wait? are you gonna walk this cat home on a leash???" she said that she would try and if not, her mom would come get her. so i helped them get the leash on. this is where the story begins to take a nose dive. i say, "ok. this is your cat. congratulations. you are now in charge of it. i'm going in to start dinner." about 3 minutes later, the doorbell rings. aiden says it's lauren and i tell her to let her in. lauren is crying hysterically saying that the cat got away. i told her it was ok and that i was coming. i grabbed annslee and was followed outside by chase, aiden, lauren, alli, and alli's friend...the owner. that's when i am told that the cat started jumping all around and the new owner had let go of the leash. i said, "let me get this straight. there is a stray cat running around the neighborhood with a dog leash attached to it?" they said, "yes." i looked at the kids and thought, "ok...this is where i need to go get alli and lauren's mom. because, let's face it...clearly you need another adult to help in the decision making in this situation because the whole 'leash-on-a-cat' one was clearly a bad call." i recounted the story to their mom, and said that i thought a 'lost cat' sign would look pretty funny with a drawing of a cat with a leash hanging off of it and while doing so, it hit me. OH MY GOSH. IF THAT CAT TRIES TO JUMP A FENCE WITH THAT LEASH ON, IT COULD HANG ITSELF. we were standing there, trying to figure out what to do...annslee in my arms, aiden standing next to me, clearly worried and chase with his little notebook and pen while lauren, alli and the new owner were running through backyards trying to find it. that's when they ran to the front yard of the house where they last saw it and yelled, "IT'S STUCK ON A FENCE! IT'S STUCK ON A FENCE! IT'S HANGING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE AND WE CAN'T GET TO IT!" we needed to act fast...i knew that much. we got there and the girls started to run around the block to get to the other side of the fence. i said, "someone needs to climb the fence." at that point, the lady who lived there came out and went back there to help them. i kept the little ones in the front and waited. she finally came out and handed us the leash. i said, "what happened." she said, "that cat was almost dead. i had to pull it up by the leash so i could reach it and i got the leash off it's neck. it took off. i don't know what those girls were trying to do to that cat, but they had a leash around it's neck." i had the quick thought, "this could go one of two ways. i could admit my involvement in the ridiculous leash debacle, or i could just nod in agreement." i mumbled something about being glad the cat was ok and thanked her for her help and decided that she was really only on a need to know basis.
as i told this story to chad tonight after he got home from colt's practice, he laughed and asked, "what was chase writing in the notebook?" i realized i had never looked but imagined it went something like this........
A RECORD OF POOR DECISIONS BY MOM
by: chase clarkson
1. she let aiden pet a stray cat.
2. she fed the cat.
3. she put a leash on the cat.
4. to be continued......
1 comment:
Mindy, that was the most hilarious story ever. I'm very glad you shared it & that I read it all, and that it happened for that matter. I would like a follow-up post on what Chase actually wrote in his little notebook.
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