Our busy travel season is heating up and someone always gets left in our wake: Fat Kitty.
He’s usually a really great cat–snuggly, loving, gentle and oh-so tolerate of kids pulling him in every direction. He’s not destructive either (with the exception of his flip-flop fet1sh) and so when he acts out he doesn’t think to be mean or aggressive. It’s just not in his nature. When Fat Kitty rebels, he poops. Mainly: where he’s not supposed to.
When we go on extended trips we hire a cat sitter but for a weekend getaway, Fat Dude is on his own and he lets us know exactly what he thinks about it by the brown care packages he has been leaving.
But his latest incident caught us completely by surprise. We had been running errands all day and it was time for Bode’s piano lesson. The last thing Hadley wanted to do was be dragged there so I upped the ante for her. “Why don’t we bring Fat Kitty in the car?”
“Really? I thought he didn’t like it.”
“Who knows? Maybe he’ll change his mind.”
She was referring to the (NON)joy ride he took a few years ago when we looked at the Christmas lights. Terrified, he clung to me the entire time and took days to recover.
I decided it was time for Round 2 of Fat Kitty Torture.
Since I was driving, it was Hadley’s turn to hold him and it was like Ground Hog Day all over again. Excitement over finally leaving the house, then horror he was going in the car. He seized Hadley like she was the last chocolate egg in the Easter basket but after a while, he started to loosen up a bit, even putting up his paws to look out the window.
But be ye not deceived: he hated every minute of it.
We thought he had almost successfully completed the drive when, as we were pulling into the driveway, I caught a whiff of something.
“Does anyone else smell that?”
Bode immediately perked up. “It smells like POOP.”
Then Hadley looked down between her legs and Fat One had poop right on her lap.
Me thinks it’ll be another few years before we take him in the car again.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 