Box of Kittens

Jake woke up and straggled into the bathroom for his morning duties before opening the outside door and picking the paper up from the steps.

Sitting down with a cup of coffee, more like a triple espresso than a regular brew, he turned to the lottery results.

“Holy shit,” he said aloud as he checked the numbers.

It looked like he’d won, if not the grand prize, at least a big chunk of change.

He kept double checking the numbers over and over again until he was satisfied that indeed he had really won the big one, something like $7.8 million, plus or minus a few hundred grand, depending on how many last minute tickets were sold.

He sat there stunned, thoughts coming by the hundreds each minute, of what he’d do with the money, how it would change his life.

And then reality hit for just a moment.

He’d been without a job for over a year and the unemployment bennies had already run out and he was living on the last of his savings. The few remaining possessions he had left had already been packed up for a trip to where he wasn’t sure. He thought he’d go someplace warmer and see if he could pick up some work.

And now the money worries were pretty much over. He checked the lottery website and found out the steps he needed to take to claim his prize money. He’d have to think over, no, check that, he was going to take the cash up front rather than the 20-year annuity. He didn’t trust the Feds, the state gov, or the lottery commission for that matter to be around long enough to pay him his winnings for the next six months let alone 20-years.

Tonight was supposed to be his last night in town. Sunday the lottery commission offices were closed so he couldn’t go make his claim until tomorrow. And that was OK he thought. He’d just hang out for the day and finish the last little bit of packing. Get up early in the morning and make the drive. He checked Google maps for the distance and driving time to the city where the lottery office was and he figured he get there late morning if he left around 6AM.

Later that evening he heard something outside and didn’t think much of it, probably just some kids in the neighborhood on their way home after doing their nightly search and destroy mission. He didn’t think he was old enough to be the stereotypical old guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn, but he sure enough thought about it a lot.

It wasn’t long after that he heard something again from outside his front door, and annoyed, he got up from killing time on the news blogs to check it out.

Opening the door he looked around and then down and there was a box of kittens that someone had obviously had left when he’d heard the noise a little while ago. Jesus H. Christ there were 6, no 7 of the little things tucked into the basket. He quickly wondered if he could get away with sneaking up to someone else’s house and leaving them on their front steps and voila, problem solved.

He’d never had a cat or a dog before. When he was still working he was too busy, and when he lost his job he was too tight with money to take on the expense of having a pet.

“Shit, what to do, what to do?” kept jumping into his mind.

He reached down and picked up the basket and brought it inside.

There was a bit of left over milk still in the fridge and so he poured it into a paper plate he set on the floor.

He lifted the kittens out one by one and set them down in front of the plate, where they began shoving against each other to get a better position. He sat down to watch.

They were too funny, half of them with their front paws in the milk, the others with their noses painted milk white, their little tails wiggling in ecstasy of having something to eat and a warm kitchen out of the cold. Their meowing had stopped when they started drinking, and now with the milk gone, they were sitting back and licking their paws to wipe the milk off their noses.

They were just too cute. This was better then LOL cats or even the I Can Haz Cheezburger site.

The next morning he got his remaining stuff loaded in the car and put the basket of kittens next to him on the front seat.

By the time he got to the city where the lottery office was he drove directly to the “No Kill” shelter he’d looked up before he’d left. They graciously took them when he arrived at the office, and just before he turned to go, he said he’d like to take one of them with him. “Aww, hell, give me two of ‘em so they’ll have each other to play with.”

He left with the basket and the two kittens he’d chosen.

He checked into a motel where they didn’t mind guests having their pets with them. On his way he’d stopped at one of the big pet supply stores and picked up a bunch of toys, food, dishes, litter box and stuff he thought he’d need to take care of them.

Claiming his winnings at the lottery commission office went easily enough. He declined having his picture taken.

He sat in his motel room and made the calls he needed to make to deal with the money.

He watched the kittens rolling around on the bed in their mock battles and then alternating with a short snooze before resuming their friendly scuffle.

He couldn’t decide which was the better deal. The money or the kittens.

“Probably the kittens,” he thought. The money just made the kittens a possibility.

He went to the store to get a digital camera. He figured he’d start taking pictures soon enough.

LOL cats, here I come.