McKitten

"Mom, I dreamt I found a really cute kitten." A few minutes later, an exhuberant 14 year old girl bounces into the room, proclaiming "it wasn't a dream!", clutching a very cute and very tiny bundle of fur against her chest. Moishe was an approximately seven week old orange tiger striped kitten, with large grey eyes and spots on her flanks. Moishe was also adorable personified, but a fourth cat was not about to join our household--we want a new apartment, and finding one with three cats will be enough of a challenge. Four would be bloody near impossible barring a miracle.

I warned my daughter that we would not be keeping the kitten, which she had found soaking wet in a mud puddle. Cleaned up and dry, Moishe appeared quite healthy, with a well fed round belly, a luxuriant kittenfur coat, no fleas, and no ear mites. Since I routinely feed my spoiled kitties kitten chow (Purina One is much too costly unless its on sale), we were set for a night or two. The next couple of nights were great fun, despite needle sharp claws and teeth decorating our feet whilst we attempted to sleep.

Earlier tonight, I had a bus trip scheduled, and since the older cats were not appreciative of the wee fuzzy interloper sucking up all the attention, Moishe came along for the ride. She was tucked into the laptop backpack where she curled up and took a nap. After picking up my passengers (girls JV lacrosse), we set out for St. J, an hour's drive away. About 20 minutes into the trip, the transmission slipped, but fortunately re-engaged. Ten minutes later, as I rounded a sharp corner in Plainfield, the power steering cut out. Afraid to stop on a blind curve in the middle of the road, I muscled the steering wheel and coasted around the corner and down the road a half mile or so, pulling over to get off the traveled lane. The bus refused to start. So much for my pretrip inspection--we were dead in the water. Fortunately, a gas station was across the street and a short call to the dispatcher had a mechanic heading our way with a replacement bus. By now, Moishe had awoken, and our backpack was emitting suspicious high pitched mewling sounds, while rustling from within. (Yes, it was partially unzipped to allow for adequate ventilation.) Seconds later, out popped a furry little orange head, much to the delight of my teenaged passengers.

Twenty minutes later, the mechanic arrived and it was time to camoflage a kitty as an innocuous backpack. Once we were on the new bus, Moishe was freed from her napping spot--the cat was out of the bag. :) Teenaged girls oohed, aahed, and cuddled her all the way to St. J. Since it was well past my dinner time and I had neglected to bring my Nutrisystem food with me, we drove downtown, parking the bus at McDonald's--one of the few downtown spots capable of housing a 77 passenger schoolbus. Out we popped, kitten and all, headed to a nice little diner nearby. En route, McDonald's staff intercepted us, eager for a kitten fix. The manager offered to adopt the homeless little bugger, which was fine with me, as we needed to find her a good home quickly. My daughter wasn't quite ready to say goodbye yet, so Moishe accompanied us to the diner. I introduced her to the waitress as our seeing eye kitten (my daughter is legally blind in one eye), and she brought us a small bowl of water. For the next hour the kitten got to enjoy my fiddlehead and wild rice soup (delicious!), broiled haddock, mashed peas which I wouldn't eat because they were canned, and mashed potatoes which I wouldn't eat because they were more in the way of calories than I was willing to consume. My daughter shared her coleslaw, and then became an amusing sight as she attempted to eat her sandwich with Moishe perched upon her shoulder. After a shouldertop bath, she curled up and fell fast asleep.

Meal finished, we returned to McDonald's, sadly bidding one impossibly well mannered and sweet kitty goodbye, whereupon she assumed her new mantle: McKitten. We'll miss her, but both of us were happy to have a kittenish fix for a few days, and even happier knowing she's now in a wonderful new home. Oh, in case you are wondering, we did exchange phone numbers so we can keep in touch as the McKitten becomes a McCat.