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Monday, February 20, 2006

Catwoman

Having finished my latest assignment, I have to say that one of the best things about temp. work is that you get to say you're "on assignment". However, I did forget to gaze calmly around the workplace and announce, "My work here is done" before leaving. I also forgot to scream, "I'm leaving and I'm never coming back!" So really, my exit today was very un-dramatic. One of the sales staff brought a custard tart for morning tea in honour of it being my last day. It was a very nice custard tart, although I'm still not entirely certain of why he picked a custard tart as a final-day farewell gesture.

Anyway. It was a quiet and civilised day. Fortunately, I had this mildly entertaining story left over from last week with which to keep the ice-cream eating masses mildly entertained.

It was not long after 9am. The day was sunny and bright, with not a cloud to be seen. There was no-one in the office but me and one sales guy and the Xerox repairdude. With the telephone not even ringing, I had no indication that anything out of the ordinary was about to happen. I procrastinated about filing by pretending to concentrate on something on my computer screen.

Then she walked in.

I could tell straight off that something was amiss. This dame was not the cool, calm and collected type we usually get walking into an airconditioning sales office. For a start, she was a dame. That was different. I could tell she was a dame by her long, spiral-curled hair. And the frilly green bra straps peeking out from behind the bright yellow singlet she wore. And, you know, the bosoms were kind of a giveaway.

She was upset. Her hands were shaking, and she struggled to keep her voice under control as she begged me for help.

"Please, can I use your phone? It's an emergency, I'm driving to Whyalla and I've only just left and my cat's sick... and my phone's out of credit." Tears welled in her eyes. "I'm so worried... I don't want to lose him! I've got the number..."

I glanced at the sales guy, but he was deep in conversation with the Xerox repairdude. A broken photocopier is a catastrophe in an office. I was going to have to handle the distraught dame on my own.

I made a judgement call.

"Do you have the number for your vet?" Picking up my receiver, I held out my hand for the phone she was holding.

"No," tears welling and voice cracking, "My brother in law. He works around here, I just don't know where! And my cat, I don't know what's wrong with him!"

I dialled the number, and handed over the receiver.

"It's me - where are you? Yes, we're going today, but the cat's sick, I don't know what's wrong with him... he's really sick, I think he's going to die... he's panting and panting, like this - " she demonstrated, a very good imitation of a car-stressed cat.

"And we gave him heaps of water! He was fine this morning, he just suddenly started panting... He's on Ryan's lap, and Ryan's upset, he's crying because of the cat... where do you work? Where?"

I could have told her what was wrong with the cat. I could have told her my cat reacted the same way on his first car trip. I could have told her that the cat would probably calm down in a few minutes, providing it wasn't provoked. I could have told her she should have taken the cat for a test-drive, secured in a cat-box, a week or so ago so she could decide whether to drive to Whyalla with her cat. I could have told her that her cat shouldn't be travelling on a child's lap on a five or six hour drive. I could have told her that half the reason her cat was stressed was the crying child. And I could just picture the scene in the car - stressed cat, crying child, mother shouting at child to stop crying, cat more stressed, child crying more....

But I didn't tell her anything.

When she had the address, I showed her where to find her brother in law. While the Xerox repairdude finished the neccessary repairs, I walked to the footpath with her and pointed out the building.

And I hoped she left the cat with her brother-in-law before attempting the drive again.

posted by Ata @ 5:45 pm

2 Comments:

At 9:41 pm, shami said…

No-one could be only ‘mildly entertained’ with Ata’s stories!

Wow, Ata is the real Cat Woman, knowing so much about felines.
In all my cat and kitten raising (up to age 14) I never had to have a cat driven anywhere.
At 9:16 am, Ata said…

Ros is a good passenger, having travelled by car regularly as a little kitten. It's getting out of the car at the other end that she doesn't like. Bosco is not so good. He howls and carries on. The first time he went to the vet, he panted and panted and his eyes glazed over... after a few minutes he calmed down a bit and just howled. We try to take them in the car occasionally, and Bosco is getting to be a better passenger.