Flashback Friday...Chris' Cats

I've been herding Cats.
Ceramic Cats.
Just when I think I've corralled them all,
I open a box and find another.
You would think, with all these cats turning up in random places, that I'm a cat person.
I am not.

A long time ago, shortly after I started working at the Bookstore, I was showing off some "stuff" that I bought at an auction. One of the things was a metal "All" laundry detergent bucket from the days before soap in paper boxes or plastic jugs.

I can't remember if I brought the bucket into the store, or if I had it in my car, but somehow, my Boss, Chris, saw it and thought it was the coolest thing.
She said,
"That would make a great planter for my flower garden!"
I told her, 
"Here, you can have it!"
You would have thought I gave her a pot of gold, she was so happy to have that rusty bucket!

At about the same time, I was dreading having to ask her to change something on a schedule that had already been made. To my surprise, Chris made the change for me without hesitation.

I remember telling Sister Susie that 
"Buying that bucket and gifting it to my boss was one of the best dollar bills I ever spent at the Auction!"

From then on, every time I needed time off or needed to change my schedule, Susie would say, 
"Better get her another bucket!"

If you spent any amount of time with Chris, you would eventually find out that one dearest things to her, were her cats. She had several and would tell stories about each one of them, their history, their antics and their different personalities.

One day she showed up at work with a picture of a cat planter...like this:

She told me,
"Honey, if you're out antiquing and you see a cat planter like this, buy it for me, okay? I think it's cute and would like to have one."

From then on, I would pick up cats.
The first one I found, was a bit more sinister looking than the one she showed me. 

Whenever I went on vacation, I would bring back a a cat as a thank you for giving me the time off.


I had found the perpetual Bucket!

There were also Birthday Cats, Holiday Cats, Get Well Cats, Just Because Cats.

I mostly stuck with the "quirky cat" theme and made it my mission to look and find the
oddest and ugliest kitties that were out there. Some were so bad, they were good...in their own kitschy kind of way.

I like to think the assortment of artful cats I gifted her, was
a good representation of the odd lot of employees that Chris led on a day to day basis.
This all was happening back in the days when I was documenting my 
travels with my Bobble

Head Dog, which Chris got an absolute kick out of.

When we traveled 
together to Iowa for a Grand Opening, she showed up with a cat of her own, a traveling companion for Bobble.

I later upgraded her to an authentic Bobble Cat, which she named, Bobble Kitty. She velcro-ed him to the dash of her Ford Focus and he watched over her, head nodding to the beat, during her long daily commutes.

As Chris set a retirement date in her head, she quietly started clearing out her office, getting rid of stuff and taking home personal items. Her walls became less Chris hand written notes and more corporate typed memos. When she decided to change her date and retire six months earlier than planned, one day, I saw her getting ready to leave and she told me...
"Honey, I'm taking him home."

For some reason, even tho, I knew she still had a few weeks left at the store, seeing her walk out the back door with the first cat I gave her (the one with the tail that started as a plant clipping and refused to stop growing, even tho the light was bad and she never watered it)...
it hit me harder than her actual going away party and seeing her leave the store for the last time.


I thought that I had given her most of the cats I bought for her before she retired, but I knew there might be a few I hadn't.
I always liked to keep a few stashed away "on reserve" for special occasions or for schedule "emergencies."
"Please let me have this day off"....
..."and oh, look, here's a cat for you..."
Grin.
However, as I've been digging into the closets on Main Street, and opening boxes, I have found more than a couple cats. I'm keeping one ceramic cat to remember this crazy cat lady who I loved working for and beside.


After Chris retired, we often talked about me coming up to Fairmont for the day. She wanted to take me to the antique shop  down on the corner and to the record store she had often talked about.
Lisa and I did make it up to her house for a visit 

and finally met her REAL cats, but Chris and I never made it to the shops.

Time slips away.

The day of her funeral, I decided to park the car and take a walk down the street of the town where Chris grew up and of which I had heard her tell so many stories about.

I saw the record shop with the

"old black and white floor."

It was exactly as she described it.

I found the antique shop 

"down on the corner."

I went in to have a look around and it was like taking a walk down memory lane with an old friend.

I bought a tambourine.

And the quirkiest cat in the shop.

And I heard the Crazy Cat Lady say...
"Ha Ha....Yeah!"

Directions to here:

I find it very symbolic that this last cat is a bookend.
Chris' and my friendship started, deepened and played out with books as the backdrop.
A fitting reminder of a wonderful chapter in this book called life I am simultaneously reading and writing.