No, not THAT kind of addition. Are you frelling nuts?

Friday afternoon, I took Cait and Zac over to Target to pick up a few things. As we pull into the parking lot, and I went to park behind another car, I saw this flash of gray and white. "Oh," thinks I, "a cat..."

So I peer under the car, and sure enough, there's a cat... at least, the ass end of it. Just a hind leg and a tail, because it had managed to haul itself up on top of the muffler. It was chilly that day, so I figured it was trying to get warm. Which of course left me the dilemma of what to do -- I could go into Target with the kids, but then what happens when the people come out and start their car up and drive away? So I sent the kids in to do the shopping, arming Cait with my purse and credit card, and sat outside on the pavement to see if I could coax the cat out.

This is where a lady drove by and asked me if I lost my cat. I said, "Well, it's not my cat, but it's stuck up in this car." She suggested offering it food -- apparently I must have looked like I had cat food in my pocket -- but then she offered me some Beggin' Strips. They're for dogs, but hey, Gypsy likes bacon (who doesn't?) so I figured I'd give them a shot. No dice. Cat sat in her warm perch and cried.

Next, the nice Somalian couple who owned the car came out. They weren't really thrilled about the whole situation, but at they were nice about it. So between the three of us, and a guy who was the cart jockey at Target, we spent 45 minutes trying to get the cat out. Finally I said, "You know, if we had a jack, we could lift the car up, climb under there, and grab the cat by its ass end."

Five minutes later, the car was elevated and Cart Guy had the cat in hand. I tossed my coat over it, wrapped it up, and put it in my car -- right around the time the kids came out of the store. So now, Gentle Reader, I have another cat. She spent the weekend sleeping, eating, and sleeping some more, and informs me her name is Cleopatra. Gypsy is NOT amused, and Tanner (ever friendly) thinks he has a new toy. However, the new toy mostly just hissed and growled at him.

Today Cleo went to the vet. Not only do I have a new cat, I have a healthy and VERY PREGNANT cat. She's so pregnant we're hoping she doesn't deliver kittehs before her surgery appointment next morning. She's also got burns to two of her paws (probably from climbing up on hot mufflers), and a bit of intestinal yuck, but all will be taken care of tomorrow when she is under anesthesia. She's a lovely girl, and I'll post photos once she's cleaned up, de-greased, and recovered from surgery. 

In the meantime, she better not be poppin' out kittehs in my lingerie drawer.