Incoherent Scribblings

The Almost Puppy

My mom, sister, and aunt all live within about four blocks of one another, so naturally when our little entourage went trick-or-treating the other night, we stayed within this four block radius of family and friends.

About a block from my sister’s house, a long-haired ginger tabby started following us. Neither my sister or niece were familiar with the cat, but he was still with our little party by the time we got to my mom’s. Since I am particularly uncomfortable seeing kitties out and about on Halloween no matter what their color, I asked Mom to sequester him in her basement for his own good.

The next morning, we released him in the hope that he would find his way home, but to be perfectly honest, we didn’t really expect him to leave or find his way home. Since my sister was not familiar with him as a “neighborhood” cat, we figured someone had dropped him off and, given the fact that we suspect there is an invisible sign on my mom’s house that says “Stray cats welcome here,” well, let’s just say I started thinking of names for the new cat.

Later that afternoon I was disturbed by the sound of barking dogs. I peeked out the window and was greeted by the sight of three unfamiliar Dachshunds in our driveway. They were barking their heads off and chasing the orange tabby. I went outside to chase the dogs away, but two of them had gone under the porch, trapping the cat there. The third one ran up to me and as I knelt down, jumped in my lap and started licking me like I was his owner.

Normally, I am not in any way, shape, or form a “dog” person. Dogs have bad breath, they jump too much, and you have to walk them. But he was still a puppy and wanted to be my friend so badly that, just for a second, I thought maybe, just maybe I could be a dog person.

I secretly called him Shadow because he followed me around the yard like a little shadow. He wasn’t interested in the cat and when I finally chased his co-conspirators out from under the porch he had a tough time trying to decide who to be loyal to. Eventually Shadow chose to follow his canine family and the group went off to the park that is across the street from Mom’s house.

While I was trying to coax the cat out from under the porch I wondered if I could ever really be a dog person. However, when I saw a blur of orange shoot out from under the porch with a poofed out tail, I was an unwavering cat person and more than a little disgusted at the behavior of the dogs.

Then I heard a group girls in the park. The girls squealed and even from the distance I could tell that at least one of the three Dachshunds had charmed them. The next thing I knew, one girl picked up a squirming puppy and trotted happily away. I suspected that “Shadow” didn’t belong to her anymore than he did to me, but the crazy cat lady in me was cheering that the dog was no longer my problem.

I will admit that the disappointment my inner child felt upon realizing that I had almost gotten a new puppy that day was something I hadn’t counted on though.