LNH20: The Cat Lady #3

[Martin Phipps]

                    The Cat Lady #3
                     The Encounter

  Ultravac's assistant appeared on the big screen in the Cat Lady's
apartment.
  "They are coming this afternoon," she said.  "You need to get the
cats out now."
  "Understood," the Cat Lady said.  She then took the oldest cats and
placed them out the door.  "Go," she said.  These cats left as the Cat
lady had asked.  "Shoo!  Shoo!" the cat lady said.  The other cats
followed their parents and grandparents.  "No," she said, pointing to
Antonio.  "You stay."
  Antonio looked at her with his big eyes.
  "It's okay," the Cat Lady said.  "I need at least one cat here for
appearance sake.  How else can I explain all this?" she said waving
her hands around the apartment.  "This afternoon you are my one and
only cat.  Got it?"
  Antonio didn't understand what the Cat Lady was saying but it
occurred to him that with all the other cats having gone out he had
all the food and litter boxes all to himself.  It seemed like a good
deal.

   Angelo had no idea where Mark, Jane, Angela, Jacky and all his
other relatives were going but it soon became clear that they were
going far away from the Cat Lady's apartment.  What he didn't know was
that the Cat Lady had trained the older cats to leave home in case of
an emergency and she counted on the younger cats to follow their
parents and grandparents.
  One thing that had to do was stay off of main roads.  The Cat Lady
had trained the older cats to follow a specific path away from the
house, one that would take them through the back alleys in the middle
of a residential area.  There were no cars here, just children playing
and other pets going out for a walk.

  Rover saw a bunch of cats approach him and he started growling.  His
master had trained him to keep strangers away and, as far as he was
concerned, "strangers" included cats, children and mailmen.  When the
cats continued to approach, he became very angry!  How dare they
invade his territory!  He started barking.
  The cats took no notice of Rover.  They continued on their way.
They were doing as the Cat Lady had trained them to do and they
weren't going to let any dog get in their way.
  Rover ran out into the middle of the alley and blocked their way and
he continued to bark and growl.  That was when he noticed that he was
facing not just a few cats but several dozen cats!  He was faced with
a bit of a dilemma: no dog could run away from a cat but what about
fifty cats?  What exactly was a dog supposed to do in this situation?
  Fortunately, Angelo was their to make the decision easy for him: he
walked right up to Rover and raised his paw, his bionic paw, his super
strong indestructible bionic paw with razor sharp claws that shone
brightly in the noonday sunshine.   Rover took the hint and ran
towards his house and barked until his master let him in.  Angelo
wanted to follow but his mother stopped him: the other cats were
already moving along and they had to follow.

  Two men knocked on the door of the Cat Lady's home.  She opened the
door.  "Can I help you?" she asked.
  "Yes," one of the men said.  "We are from the Netropolis County
Health Department.  We have received reports that you are hoarding
cats."
  "Hoarding cats?" she asked.  "But I only have the one cat!"
  "Can we come in?" the other man asked.
  The first man spoke again.  "Hoarding cats is a serious violation of
community health standards," he said.  "The cats urine alone is a
problem as buildings retain the smell of urine even when the cats are
not there."
  The second man spoke.  "We can't help but notice that there is a
distinct smell of cat urine here."
  The Cat Lady nodded.  "Yes, I'm sorry about that.  Antonio has a bit
of a problem.  He can't hold his wee wee.  That's why I have several
litter boxes scattered around the apartment, you know, to make it
easier for him."
  "You also have several dishes of food laid out for one cat."
  The Cat Lady sighed.  "Yes, well, I do spoil my Antonio, I admit
that.  But I don't see why people should be bothered by the presence
of one cat."
  The two men nodded.  "Quite right!  You are fully entitled to your
companionship!"
  "You might want to take Antonio to a vet and ask about his urinary
problem," the other man said.
  The Cat Lady nodded.  "I'll keep that in mind.  Will that be all
then?"
  "Absolutely!  Have a nice day!"
  "Sorry to have bothered you!"
  The Cat Lady smiled and waved as the two men left.

  The neighborhood that Angelo found himself in was strangely
familiar.  Then he noticed that they were approaching the Cat Lady's
house.  How about that!  They had somehow followed a circular path and
been brought back to their point of departure!  Neat!
  The older cats started meowing and scratching on the door until the
Cat Lady opened the door and let them in.  Angelo looked around until
he found Antonio: he hadn't seen him for a few hours and he wondered
if his brother was okay.
  Antonio, likewise, was not upset to see the other cats return.
While it was good to have all the food to himself, there was more than
enough food for everybody.  Besides, he had been starting to feel a
bit lonely being the Cat Lady's only cat.

                                    THE END