I feel like I need to preface this entry by telling you that I adore my neighbors!! But I am losing my mind this week! You see, I am "cat-sitting" while they are out of town and this has been the biggest fail of my life! Where do I even start??
When Luke and I moved to Sherwood, the thing I was most excited about was living on a cute little suburban street with other young families where Emery and Luelle could ride bikes on the sidewalks and play in the front yard. They say you return to what you know, and that is how I grew up so naturally, it's how I wanted to raise my own children. Well we hit the neighbor jackpot over here and we've been very happy! In particular, we have a wonderful single mom with two older children living directly next door. To protect her privacy, we'll call her "Cary." For real, I'm thinking about having Cary raise my kids because she did an amazing job with hers! Her high school aged son mows the lawn, takes out the garbage, and has incredible manners! Her middle school aged daughter steals my heart every time we talk. Maybe that's because whenever we talk she is dropping off some treat she baked and reminding me that she's almost old enough to babysit! And I loved her even more when she was going on a trip to see "America's Got Talent" and stopped by to show me her glitter, "I Love You Nick Cannon!" sign.
Anyway, "Cary" went on a Hawaiian trip about this time last year and came home sporting a rather large diamond on her ring finger. As you can imagine, her 2011 Valentine's Day proposal turned into a 2012 Valentine's Day wedding! Aside from being very happy for her, what this means to me is that I am now tasked with watching her two cats for an entire week while she and her family are away celebrating in Mexico. Are you still following me? Here's the thing....I live next door, we practically share a back yard, and I have never even seen her cats and have no idea what they look like! When asked, she explained that to me by saying they were strictly indoor cats. Then she asked me to stop by twice a day and give them each a scoop of food. Easy enough, right? The only other instructions I received were that if the little one started to throw up I need to cover the food. People....this is why I don't own cats!! No instructions should ever begin with, "If the little one starts throwing up...."
So here is how my week has gone thus far:
Day 1. Not gonna lie....I forgot to feed the cats.
Day 2. Morning- fed the cats, Evening - they didn't eat any of the morning food so I didn't have to do anything.
Day 3. Morning - cats still hadn't eaten. Evening - They still hadn't eaten.
And this is where I started to panic! It slowly dawned on me that I had never actually seen these cats anywhere! So this is what I am working with:
1. Don't know that cats names.
2. Don't know what the cats look like.
3. Haven't seen the cats in days....or (more accurately) ever.
4. Cats haven't eaten.
5. These are indoor cats that should never be let outside!
What am I supposed to do? Clearly I don't want to be going through people's personal spaces but of course I started an all out search in a cold, dark, empty house going, "here kitty kitty kitty...." only to scream bloody murder when I saw the shadow of what was mostly likely a serial killer lunging at me from behind a closed door. In a spit second I knew it had to be the same thing that probably killed the invisible cats! Thank the good Lord above, it just turns out that nothing completes the room decor for a 12 year old girl like a life-size Justin Beiber cutout lurking amongst a sea of stuffed animals. (Sidenote: Hey! We have the same taste in music!)
As you can guess....I still haven't found those cats and am starting to think I am either completely nuts....or my neighbor is! And I just had to send probably the most awkwardly worded email of my entire life that went a little something like this:
"Hey Cary! Sorry to bother you on your wedding day, but are you sure there are real cats inside your house? Is there any chance you let them out on accident and can you describe them in detail to me? I don't want you to stress...I'm sure they'll turn up, I just want to make sure that they get their food. Again, please don't spend your wedding day worried about this....but is there any chance someone took your cats and didn't tell you? Congratulations!!!"
I bet you thought this story would have a more satisfying end? Nope! At this point I'm contemplating adopting two strays, leaving them inside and then being all like, "Wait....those ones aren't yours?! How was Mexico?" Anyone have a better plan?
Happy Valentine's Day!
So funny, My friend's sister has cats that do that. The only evidence she has 2 cats is that there are litter boxes and scratching posts. I've been over there a couple times where I sneaked a peak at one of them bolting out from under a couch to find a new hiding spot all I saw was a brownish colored blurr.. Some cats are fine with family but strangers will never see them.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope you find out what's up!!!
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