Buddies

I heard the call come in over the intercom.
That someone in my department was needed over at the cats.
More than likely because a customer just wanted to hold them and then go on their merry way.
And since I was the only one in my department at that time.
I went over there.
And I was right.
In that the customer and her daughter wanted to hold one of the cats.

But, they wanted to hold it to see if the daughter and the cat would get along together. If they did, then more than likely they were going to adopt him. :)

Normally not something to be remarked upon, as that's what every parent wants. To make sure animal and kid are going to play nice together.

But this case was slightly different.
In that the daughter was special needs.

I don't recall seeing the mother daughter duo before.
But apparently they come in all the time to look at all the animals and see the cats.
Which by that point, the daughter just wants to go home. She doesn't care about the cats.
Yet today, today, she took a liking to one of the cats.
Wanting to take it home. Hold it. Have it. You couldn't really take her away from the cage before she was right back at it, wanting to hold the cat.

It was out of the blue. And the mother knew it. So she decided to just see how the daughter would do. How the cat would do.
To see if the daughter actually liked the cat outside of the cage as much as she liked him in the cage.

This particular cat had just come into the store. Probably not even an hour ago. So I didn't know his personality at all. But, he was purring as soon as I took him out. Nice. Calm. Not struggling or scared.

I had him on my lap.
And the daughter moved forward to pick him up.
Both ands coming around the neck and lifting him. :S
AH! Uh. No. No child! Not by the neck!

The mom and I were quick to tell her not to do that. And the mom was great and showed her how to hold the cat, what to do, what not to do, etc.

The cat was a champ through it all.
He just purred, even as she was squeezing him much tighter than necessary.
He would just tense up, try to pull away, but once the squeezing became less strangling, he would relax right back down. Purring content.

It's not often that you see a pairing like this come together.
Where it seems like it's made to be.

I wonder if there was some sort of connection felt, where the daughter recognized that this cat would do well with her, and the cat knew that she needed him.

I had my reservations. About her having the cat. Because of the squeezing and such.
I suggested that the daughter needs to have more time around cats and learn how to handle them, but that this cat seemed mellow enough.
And the mom assuaged my concerns by stating that the daughter wouldn't hold the cat without her around etc.

It was just...one of those things, where you felt bad about splitting them up.
lol.
So the mom decided to get the cat. :)

Which meant grabbing paper work.
Which meant putting the cat back in the cage.

Which the daughter didn't like at all.
As I opened the cage to slip the cat inside.
She slammed it shut, nearly catching me and the cat in the crosshairs if I hadn't pulled back. :S Yikes!
It was hard enough where I was like "You could have broken something kid!" Because those are metal doors and they HURT when you get hit by them. Trust me, I got enough bumps on the head to prove that. lol.
Thankfully we were both okay, she just didn't want us to take the cat away from her. :)

So in the end.
Cat got a new home, daughter got a new friend. I hope they have a great friendship together. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi