Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Below is a not so short story I shared with a good friend on my forum a week ago. I spent a long time writing it so I thought I would share it here in case anyone is up for a little chuckle and has the time and patience to read it. Since it was written a week ago, I have included the update about the cat at the bottom.
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You know your life is really boring when the most exciting thing you do all week is a trip to the grocery store.
But I did something much more exciting yesterday when we went to pick up our new cat, Busia, it was quite a trip. I cannot drive in the Interstate anymore so we went the "back way" through the country and lots of small towns. The Interstate would have been a one hour drive but Google Maps said that the back way would be about 1 ¾ hours, so I reasoned that would be better than getting killed on the Interstate.
Anyhow, to try to make a long story short it took a lot longer than THAT... But getting there was not the worst part of it because I had scribbled down the directions to get there, since we do not have a printer set up so I could not print a map.... The worst part was when we hit the big city and we got lost -- BIG-TIME! I not ONLY had the wrong city but I had the wrong address. So we drove and drove and drove, then I called the sellers and asked them to meet us at the hospital in the adjacent city because we had been there and Lewis was soooo sure he could remember how to get back there, yeah, right. The long and short is that the sellers drove to meet us there but we could not find it again so we called them back and told them...
So they asked us to meet them at a park and gave us the name if the park, Meridian Lake Park, which was by a big lake. I had no map of that city so there was no way I would know how to find that park, but as luck would have it I saw a city bus at the bus terminal and asked the bus driver how to find it. Well, he was so sure his directions were right but they were wrong so we ended up back in the adjacent city again, not the city the park is located in... So I stopped at the Safeway grocery store and asked the staff how to find the park, and he gave me good directions... Problem was, I was so confused by then that turned the wrong way OUT of the grocery story lot and ended up going the opposite direction.... Finally we realized that because we knew we were in the country - again. So we turned around and went back the other way, and I found the things he said I would see but it was VERY dark by then so I did not see the park...
So I pulled into a Walgreens and asked a local where the park was located... He told us what to do so we did that and we saw a body of water on the left and thought that was probably it, but we did not see the sign because it was dark, so we doubled back and saw the boat launch sign and pulled over and saw the park entrance gate, although the park was closed. We then called the owners of the cat but I had no way to know they would answer the cell phone because hours had gone by since our last conversation on the phone. Mind you, it was about 10:30 pm by then, and originally we were supposed to meet the sellers at 5 pm.
By that time I had realized I might have gone through all this for nothing and I might not even get the cat, but I had accepted that as the will of God, because God knows how hard I tried! Well as luck or God would have it the woman answered the phone and said she (and who I assumed was her husband) would be meet us at the park in about five minutes. That she did, and they had the cat! As I was handing over the 340 we had agreed I would pay (since I agreed to pay 40 for the vet checkup on top of the 300 price of the cat) she said I could keep the 40… Interestingly, they are Russian and my husband can speak some Russian so he spoke to them in Russian which helped a lot. Then as we were taking the cat and leaving to go home, knowing how lost we had been they were wondering if I would be okay getting home... These people were so nice. Today she called me to find out if I got home okay.
HOW we got home is another long story, but what the heck, I don’t want to leave you hanging…. I was so sure I would be okay once I got OUT of the large city area and back into the country, lol, so we tried to double back using my handwritten directions, but somewhere we turned wrong and ended up in another city we had not gone through on the way… I had a road map so I sort if figured out what had happened but there was no way to course correct by then…… We were lost. But Lewis insisted I just keep driving and I would find my way back – NOT! Mind you it was almost midnight by then and nothing was open so I could not stop and get directions… I had NO IDEA where I was or how to get home… Finally we ended up at a small Tavern that was of course closed but at least it had a name and I could see the street signs so I stopped there and told Lewis I was NOT going to drive anymore till I knew where I was GOING…. I tried to flag down three passing cars but nobody stopped so finally I called 911 – thank God for cell phones and police! That would have been the logical thing to do BEFORE driving all over creation but Lewis had other ideas…
Anyhow, I was crying by then but the 911 operator who answered the phone knew just where I was and she gave me precise directions to get home, so after that it was a piece of cake… Mind you the cat was hollering all this time, clawing at the cage to get out, poor cat!
So now you know what I mean when I say I will do ANYTHING for a cat… and she is worth every bit of it, as a more beautiful and sweet cat I could never have hoped for, and although she is still hissing at some of our other cats, she’ll get over it.… I DO believe this was partly God’s doing because it was a fluke how I found her… She was never advertised but when I responded to an ad for Persian kittens I asked the owner of she had any adult cats and that is how I found her. The cat was still nursing her kittens so that is the only reason she had not yet posted an ad on Craigslist... Mind you, I have been responding to ALL the Craigslist ads for Persians within a 200 mile radius since we lost our two cats over a month ago…. Even though I have the money I could not find a cat because nobody responded to any of my e-mails. Had she posted that ad I am sure someone would have gotten the cat before I would even if she had responded to me…
All the cats we have adopted during the last five years, since all our older ones have passed, we found under similar strange circumstances – whereby it had to be more than luck since these cats are in such great demand -- so I do believe it was the will of God. In all the cases I had all but given up hope in finding a cat and then I found that cat.
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UPDATE: Busia has really settled in and it did not take long. She spent the first night in my computer room but the next day I let her out so she slowly discovered the rest of the house. She stopped hissing at our other cats after the first night; I guess she was just scared to see all these cats because where she came from there was only one other cat.. She is the sweetest cat ever and she follows me around whenever I leave my station at the computer which is not very often. She just loves to eat which is a joy to behold, given two of our older cats have kidney disease and it is difficult to get them to eat. It does not take much to make me happy these days. My mantra is that every day all the cats are eating is a good day, and I mean that absolutely! I love our cats more than anything in the world. God, step aside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You know your life is really boring when the most exciting thing you do all week is a trip to the grocery store.
But I did something much more exciting yesterday when we went to pick up our new cat, Busia, it was quite a trip. I cannot drive in the Interstate anymore so we went the "back way" through the country and lots of small towns. The Interstate would have been a one hour drive but Google Maps said that the back way would be about 1 ¾ hours, so I reasoned that would be better than getting killed on the Interstate.
Anyhow, to try to make a long story short it took a lot longer than THAT... But getting there was not the worst part of it because I had scribbled down the directions to get there, since we do not have a printer set up so I could not print a map.... The worst part was when we hit the big city and we got lost -- BIG-TIME! I not ONLY had the wrong city but I had the wrong address. So we drove and drove and drove, then I called the sellers and asked them to meet us at the hospital in the adjacent city because we had been there and Lewis was soooo sure he could remember how to get back there, yeah, right. The long and short is that the sellers drove to meet us there but we could not find it again so we called them back and told them...
So they asked us to meet them at a park and gave us the name if the park, Meridian Lake Park, which was by a big lake. I had no map of that city so there was no way I would know how to find that park, but as luck would have it I saw a city bus at the bus terminal and asked the bus driver how to find it. Well, he was so sure his directions were right but they were wrong so we ended up back in the adjacent city again, not the city the park is located in... So I stopped at the Safeway grocery store and asked the staff how to find the park, and he gave me good directions... Problem was, I was so confused by then that turned the wrong way OUT of the grocery story lot and ended up going the opposite direction.... Finally we realized that because we knew we were in the country - again. So we turned around and went back the other way, and I found the things he said I would see but it was VERY dark by then so I did not see the park...
So I pulled into a Walgreens and asked a local where the park was located... He told us what to do so we did that and we saw a body of water on the left and thought that was probably it, but we did not see the sign because it was dark, so we doubled back and saw the boat launch sign and pulled over and saw the park entrance gate, although the park was closed. We then called the owners of the cat but I had no way to know they would answer the cell phone because hours had gone by since our last conversation on the phone. Mind you, it was about 10:30 pm by then, and originally we were supposed to meet the sellers at 5 pm.
By that time I had realized I might have gone through all this for nothing and I might not even get the cat, but I had accepted that as the will of God, because God knows how hard I tried! Well as luck or God would have it the woman answered the phone and said she (and who I assumed was her husband) would be meet us at the park in about five minutes. That she did, and they had the cat! As I was handing over the 340 we had agreed I would pay (since I agreed to pay 40 for the vet checkup on top of the 300 price of the cat) she said I could keep the 40… Interestingly, they are Russian and my husband can speak some Russian so he spoke to them in Russian which helped a lot. Then as we were taking the cat and leaving to go home, knowing how lost we had been they were wondering if I would be okay getting home... These people were so nice. Today she called me to find out if I got home okay.
HOW we got home is another long story, but what the heck, I don’t want to leave you hanging…. I was so sure I would be okay once I got OUT of the large city area and back into the country, lol, so we tried to double back using my handwritten directions, but somewhere we turned wrong and ended up in another city we had not gone through on the way… I had a road map so I sort if figured out what had happened but there was no way to course correct by then…… We were lost. But Lewis insisted I just keep driving and I would find my way back – NOT! Mind you it was almost midnight by then and nothing was open so I could not stop and get directions… I had NO IDEA where I was or how to get home… Finally we ended up at a small Tavern that was of course closed but at least it had a name and I could see the street signs so I stopped there and told Lewis I was NOT going to drive anymore till I knew where I was GOING…. I tried to flag down three passing cars but nobody stopped so finally I called 911 – thank God for cell phones and police! That would have been the logical thing to do BEFORE driving all over creation but Lewis had other ideas…
Anyhow, I was crying by then but the 911 operator who answered the phone knew just where I was and she gave me precise directions to get home, so after that it was a piece of cake… Mind you the cat was hollering all this time, clawing at the cage to get out, poor cat!
So now you know what I mean when I say I will do ANYTHING for a cat… and she is worth every bit of it, as a more beautiful and sweet cat I could never have hoped for, and although she is still hissing at some of our other cats, she’ll get over it.… I DO believe this was partly God’s doing because it was a fluke how I found her… She was never advertised but when I responded to an ad for Persian kittens I asked the owner of she had any adult cats and that is how I found her. The cat was still nursing her kittens so that is the only reason she had not yet posted an ad on Craigslist... Mind you, I have been responding to ALL the Craigslist ads for Persians within a 200 mile radius since we lost our two cats over a month ago…. Even though I have the money I could not find a cat because nobody responded to any of my e-mails. Had she posted that ad I am sure someone would have gotten the cat before I would even if she had responded to me…
All the cats we have adopted during the last five years, since all our older ones have passed, we found under similar strange circumstances – whereby it had to be more than luck since these cats are in such great demand -- so I do believe it was the will of God. In all the cases I had all but given up hope in finding a cat and then I found that cat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE: Busia has really settled in and it did not take long. She spent the first night in my computer room but the next day I let her out so she slowly discovered the rest of the house. She stopped hissing at our other cats after the first night; I guess she was just scared to see all these cats because where she came from there was only one other cat.. She is the sweetest cat ever and she follows me around whenever I leave my station at the computer which is not very often. She just loves to eat which is a joy to behold, given two of our older cats have kidney disease and it is difficult to get them to eat. It does not take much to make me happy these days. My mantra is that every day all the cats are eating is a good day, and I mean that absolutely! I love our cats more than anything in the world. God, step aside.
