During the 30 minute drive my mind drifted back to when we lived in the city. Every night I listened to my daughter praying, "dear Lord please let us move to the country so I can have a kitten. Amen". A couple weeks later an opportunity to purchase my Grandmother's Homestead came up. The property was in need of much work, but the only thing my five year old saw was a big yard and a chance to have a pet.
We arrived at the pet store where my daughter would ordinarily gaze at every creature with excitement and have something to say about each animal. But this time was different. Her mind was on finding a kitten. We walked to the center of the store where there was one cage with two cats. One nice one and one mean one. Our first attempt to pet "Tucker" was met with a nice bite to the hand. "Well we'll have to talk to dad about this", I said. So I called him and told him what we were doing. He was not happy as I expected. So we left the store, letting the owner know that we might be back. "Mommy I want the nice one", was all that was said on the way home. The silence was deafening. I thought what did I get myself into.
When we got home I had a chance to speak to my husband at length about our desire to have a cat. He reluctantly agreed to the deal if it didn't effect getting school work done. So I called the pet shop and asked about the two cats. The owner said we have one left. Without thinking I said, "we'll take it!" When we arrived at the pet shop the only question in my mind was, "is it the nice one or the mean one that was left". It didn't take long to figure out that no one is dumb enough to pick a mean cat when there's a nice one sitting next to it. So into a box he went and we headed home with my daughter's Christmas wish. The cat was unusually quiet on the ride home. I expected to hear repeated meowing during the entire trip. We stopped twice to check if the cat was ok because he was so quiet. He seemed happy to be in a box. It was at this point that "Tucker" won my heart. I figured any cat that could find contentment in an enclosed dark spot must be in need of some love.
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