Sunday, January 31, 2010

For Want Of a Kitten (Part 3)

January 30, 2010:

I woke up early and got ready. I was staring at my clothes, trying to remember how they work, when I got a text from Lainey. She was up and awake. I checked my e-mail to see if Lucy with the cat had sent her address yet. She had, in fact, and the final leg of the journey to get Lainey a kitten had begun.

Its the last part of this 3-parter, folks. So here it goes...

I drove over to her place, and when I got there, I found that we were both groggy. I was glad for that, because I didn't want to be the only person rattled by the early sun. The first place she wanted to head to was a Swap Meet in the Westminster area. It was at a college, and I hadn't been there for years. The place had the usual smattering of questionably procured items, and Yardsale Clearance. But it also had some impressive booths and stands, organized and stocked to the gills.

Lainey's intent was to find a cat carrier. But it was a particular one that had caught her eye the last time she had been at the Swap Meet. So we looked up and down the rows of stands, not seeming to have any luck with the search. As I got more and more distracted by the sheer random selection of the Swap Meet, I realized that we get low on time before too soon.

"Um," I started, with my usual wit, "Do we even NEED a cat carrier?
"Probably not," replied Lainey, "But didn't you say it would look better if we had one?"
"Kind of," I said, "But I meant more that we should look prepared to take in a cat."
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah," I continued, "We can get a cardboard box if we have too."
"Huh," she thought for a moment, "Okay, let's get a churro and go."
"My kind of plan," I agreed.

We left the Swap Meet and got back to my car. I put the address into Sheila (my GPS) and set off for the mysterious horizons of Chino Hills. The initial calculation said that we would get there within a half hour. But its California, so I always add an additional half hour to everything. Fortunately, the initial calculation was almost dead on, and we soon pulled up to the house that either had within its walls a brand new kitten or some people that would be murdered via Death-by-Vegan.

By this point, Lainey was very nervous. But I felt very confident, which was very odd. I rang the doorbell and was quick to hear excited voices and kids running around on the other side of the door. Lucy answered the door, greeted us, and welcomed us inside. Its a strange thing to come into someones house searching for one particular thing. In this case, I was scanning every inch of the house for kittens. Not my normal list of: Bathroom, religious paraphernalia, chairs, and things that might trip me. We were shown to a couch and engaged in some small talk.

Topics of Conversation @ Lucy's Chino Hills Home: Cats, kittens, weird people, cats, CraigsList, moving out of houses, kittens, how crazy kids can be, cats, etc.

In the midst of this small talk, we finally met the little kitten that would be going home with Lainey. And I can't stress enough just how insanely adorable this kitten is. And I mean present tense, people. Adorable with a capital "ADORABLE." The kids had given the kitten the moniker "Mittens," and it struck me just how temporary that name felt. It was just a placeholder, and Lainey would have to come up with a real name. As of this blog, no name has been decide on. But it will no doubt be awesome.

We gave the money that Lucy had asked for the kitten, thanked her and her family for their kindness yet again, and then drove back to Lainey's home. The entire time, I was kind of in shock. The kitten had been found. The kitten had been real. The kitten was now with us, and it was going to a good home. I had actually accomplished something. But that was me and where my head was at, between the insanely adorable meows of the insanely adorable kitten. And Lainey? Well...

She held that little kitten all the way back to her home.

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