The Third Cat

I am not a believer. I don't think that angels are watching over me, doing me favors - I try to live in the world of the real. But this gray tabby somehow called out specifically to me in the Wal-Mart parking lot. My outburst of, "did you see..." was followed by a dramatic expression of asceticism as I exclaimed through tears, "but we can't have ANOTHER cat!"

Dee laughed and said that three cats are just the same as two and we crossed the parking lot on foot, drawn by enigmatic feline magnetism.

Three FREE cats were being displayed outside of a middle-aged woman's car. She seemed as if she was being forced to give the cats away by someone old enough to be her mother, maybe she was. She said that the gray one was her favorite and Dee and I both held the little beauty. We decided if the kitten was there when we finished our errand, we'd take her. We crossed the hot sunny parking lot, but as we passed our car on the way into the store, we stopped and turned around. The woman got tears in her eyes when we came back and gave us some cheap cat food pouches, what she'd been feeding the kitten. We politely reassured her the cat would have a good life and great care (thinking with a bit of snobby scorn that we'd be upgrading to premium cat food right away). I don't remember what we planned to get there, but we drove home right then with the tiny cat, hoping her ears hadn't gotten burned from being out in that bright sun.