Tuesday, October 12, 2010

DUMB LUCK X 2

Today we ran out of cat food.  I had not noticed the level of the 16 pound bag getting quite so low, which in no way excuses this...

Um, Hullo? You're going to be in trouble Precious...

Critical Mass had been reached.  The cats hovered over the empty bowls (emptied over the course of the past evening when they should be sleeping).  Glaring.  At me.  My half-Catholic upbringing kicked in. I was swimming in my own guilt.  Ah, guilt, the gift that keeps on giving.


I had already been out on a two mile walk, but not wanting to deviate from my exercise regime - which includes walking whenever possible -  I told my son I would be traipsing out again.  To buy cat food. Lest we have a mutiny on our hands.

I was going to the local chain drugstore which issues coupons for money off every time you shop there and use their courtesy card.  I am still not over drugstores carrying everything from "Mother's Little Helper' to Halloween decor.

My son started digging out coupon rewards from this particular drug store. "Use them before they expire," he said, then added,  "They have my name on them so take my courtesy card."  I dug out a few manufacturer's coupons for cat food in case the courtesy card police realized I wasn't William, and I found a couple more store reward coupons of my own that were close to expiring, so I threw those in my pocket as well.

My mistake was standing for a moment in front of our herd to let them have their moment.  It was so positively unnerving I raced out the door before they became Stepford Cats and began advancing toward me.

I arrived at the drug store a few minutes later.  An advantage of living in the hood I will cherish this coming winter.  My car was not made for snow.  Even with two seventy pound tubes of sand over the back axle it will simply not do anything but slide.


Case In Point.
(After I had gotten it out of the spot it was parked in, it proceeded to slide down hill, to within a foot of the old oak tree. In two inches of snow.)

I raced to the back of the store to find the cat food I had the manufacturer's coupon for was buy one 3.5 lb. bag, get one free. Yay, especially since I do not resemble William. But when I got to the cashier I realized I had all the store coupons, and had forgotten the courtesy card.   The young kid behind the register said I could not use the store coupons without a card, he could try looking it up by my phone number.  "Ah, I have had this card for almost twenty years, I have no idea what phone number is on it, and I really don't want to walk allllllll the way home to get it."   "Well," he said I suppose I could risk getting in trouble and just do it."   I gave him my best You can trust me look and said,  "Well I certainly won't say anything." 
  
He even took the manufacturer's coupon.  I ended up paying fifty-two cents for seven pounds of cat food.


                                                     Pardon me while I gloat unbearably....


Somehow the walk  seemed ever so much shorter, while I whizzed home with a grin on my face wide enough for passers-by to easily mistake me for the village idiot.

While my finding humor in nearly every situation is my mother's doing, that irrepressible grin is my fathers fault.

And sooo, as the sun set prettily over the Hood this evening...



The crew all settled down with full stomachs to hold them over until the all night binging begins.

 

4 comments:

  1. I don't have any cats now, but I have been known to open a can of tuna when I didn't have any cat food. Getting her to go back to regular food was rough! Very nice pictures of your kitties, who don't look scary at all!

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  2. hmmm. My cat does not care for tuna. He prefers Purina Cat Chow and never seems to tire of it. So far during the 5 years of his life, we have never run out of cat chow.

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  3. Cute kitties!
    we have three cats. One will eat anything at all, including vegtables. One will eat canned cat food, and will tolerate a little bit of dry. the last one will ONLY eat dry cat food and chili cheeese fritos...

    good post

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  4. I could just sit here all night long and read your blog...it's so entertaining! ...Plus, I'm a cat lover too, and would have done the very same thing!

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