by Patricia Fry
“No. I think he’s back to his normal routine. He seems able and willing to leap onto the counter again, race up the stairs, wrestle with Lexie…”
She interrupted. “Wrestle with Lexie?”
“Yeah, I saw him attack her just last night like Walter used to do. They played a little rough for a few minutes. That concerned me at first. But I think mollycoddling time is over with. Rags seems good to go. Physically, he should be fine. I was concerned about his emotional healing after the ordeal. But it appears he’s doing okay in that department, wouldn’t you say so?”
She nodded. “I was worried about that, too. It seemed to take a while for him to regain his confidence. But he appears pretty normal to me.” She scratched his tummy. “Now we just need your fur to grow back. You still have some bare spots.”
Michael took a look at the cat. “Oh, it’s grown in a lot.” He let out a deep sigh. “Now, if he’ll just behave himself during all of our travels. Try to wear him out on the road trip, will you? I don’t want to deal with any of his shenanigans on the plane.”
****
“Ready to go?” Savannah asked her aunt when she, Lily, and Rags arrived at her house a few days later.
“I’d better be,” Margaret said, shoving a small bag into the SUV next to the cat pen. She stepped back. “That’s a small pen. Where’s the big one you usually travel with?”
“No room,” Savannah said.
Margaret looked around in the back of the car. “Well, there would be if you weren’t such a heavy packer.” She frowned. “Three suitcases, Vannie?”
“Well, yes; one for Lily, me, and Rags in LA and one for the trip to the East Coast. Then there’s my overnight bag with the things we need at hand—Rags’s food, Lily’s snacks, my toiletries…” She looked at her aunt. “Don’t tell me you’ve packed everything for both trips in that one small bag?”
“No,” Max said as he approached the car with a large suitcase. “I’m bringing one of her bags to the airport.”
Savannah smirked playfully at her aunt. “And you packed for just one?”
“Yeah, but I don’t dress as skimpy as you do,” Margaret declared. “My clothes take up more room.”
Max grinned at the women’s banter. “Well, be safe, you two.” He kissed Margaret, hugged Savannah, then poked his head into the car and waved to Lily. “Bye-bye, princess. Keep these two out of trouble, will you?” When Rags peeked up over the backseat, he stared at the cat for a moment before saying, “Rags, you stay out of trouble, too.”
“If only,” Margaret said under her breath while easing into the passenger seat.
“Don’t start,” Savannah warned.
Max grinned and waved as Savannah pulled her car out of the driveway.
****
The women had been on the road for several hours when they made their third stop, this time at a service station with a mini-market.
“Lily had a nice nap, didn’t she?” Margaret said, smiling back at the toddler. “She’s probably ready to stretch her little legs again, aren’t you, sweetie?”
“Yes, and she probably needs changing.” Savannah let out a sigh. “There go all of our potty-training efforts.”
“Why?”
“We’ll be so off schedule and I really don’t want her using public toilets.” Savannah crinkled her nose. “Some of the restrooms you encounter are just nasty.”
“Yeah, I guess that can be a problem,” Margaret agreed. She looked at the convenience store. “Well, I’m not grossed out by those toilets. In fact, I need to go.”
“Me, too,” Savannah said. She pulled up to a gas pump, opened the car door, and quickly slipped out. “Since I’m pregnant, I’ll go first.”
“But I’m old!” Margaret shouted after her.
Savannah grinned impishly at her aunt before disappearing into the store.
When she returned, Margaret was standing outside the car holding Lily in her arms. She handed the toddler to Savannah. “My turn.”
“How am I going to pump gas with…?”
“You figure it out,” Margaret called while rushing toward the building. Minutes later, she approached Savannah, who was standing at the passenger-side window talking to Lily while the toddler sat looking at a book. Rags was eating canned food from a paper plate in the back of the car.
Savannah pointed. “Once the gas tank’s full, I’m going to park over there and let Lily run around in that grassy area.”
“How about if I take her over there?” Margaret suggested. She reached for the toddler. “Want to take a walk with Auntie?” Once she held Lily in her arms, she asked, “Vannie, are we having lunch here?”
Savannah frowned. “No. I thought we’d just munch on the snacks I brought. We can have lunch down the road a ways. Maybe you can find us a place on the GPS.” After Savannah had parked the car, she joined her aunt, cleaned her hands with a baby wipe, and began pulling food out of a small cooler. “Need a water bottle?”
“Got one,” Margaret said. “But I will have some of that trail mix. That looks good. Did you make it?”
“Yes.” Savannah placed Lily on a quilt she’d spread over the grass and handed her a baggy of halved grapes. “Oh, Auntie,” she said, “Rags used his litter box; would you mind scooping it out for me?”
Margaret huffed in disgust. “I don’t know what the big deal is about preggo women cleaning litter boxes. In my day, they cleaned their own litter boxes and survived,” she grumbled. “Some vacation this is, if I have to clean a litter box every time I turn around.”
“Thank you, Auntie,” Savannah said sweetly.
Before opening the back of the car, Margaret called out to Savannah, “Hey, what about the cat?”
“I think I’ll just leave him in the car for now. He’s okay.”
Twenty minutes later, the two women and the baby were back on the road. “Got a text from Max,” Margaret announced. She smiled. “He said he picked up the kittens this morning after their little snip-snip surgeries and they’re all doing just fine.” She turned in her seat toward Savannah. “Have you seen the kittens lately—the ones we rescued from the Lander property? There are a couple of beauties—a fluffy golden tabby almost like Layla and a pretty black-and-white male with a Groucho moustache. I think both of them already have homes. Did you see the one that looks like Rags?”
“No, I never did. Michael had that litter at the clinic for a while and whenever I’d think about visiting, he’d make some excuse for why I couldn’t do it that day.” She grinned. “You don’t suppose he did that on purpose, do you?”
“Naw,” Margaret joked. “Why would he do that, pray tell?”
“Speaking of my baby boy, what’s he doing? I haven’t heard from him in a while.”
“Who, Rags?” Margaret craned her neck to look into the backseat. “I don’t know.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and turned around to get a better look. “Where’s the kitty, Lily?” she asked.
Lily turned her hands up and shrugged. “Kitty, all gone.” She shook her head. “No kitty.”
“I don’t see him, Vannie. He must be in the back behind the seat—sleeping in his pen, maybe.”
“Jiggle his treat package,” Savannah suggested.
“Huh?”
“His treats are there in the console. Shake the package and see if he’ll come out of hiding.”
When Margaret’s attempt to rouse him failed, she said, “Maybe he’s sleeping under that blanket next to Lily.” Sitting on her knees, she reached over the seat and lifted the blanket. “Not there.” She sat down and fastened her seat belt. “He’s probably in the pen.”
After a few minutes, Savannah pulled off the freeway.
“Where are we going?”
“I’d better check on him. You know, where Rags is concerned, you can’t make any assumptions. I just want to be sure he’s still with us.” Savannah parked the car and quickly walked around to the back. When she opened the tailgate, her heart sank
. “Darn. He’s not here.” She put her hands over her mouth. “What could have happened? We would have seen him if he…” She didn’t finish her sentence. Frantically, she began moving things around in case the sly cat had slipped behind a piece of luggage or inside a tote. But her search was to no avail.
“Is he under the seat?” Margaret suggested. “That’s where our cats used to go before we made the mandatory carrier rule—well, except for Layla, who rides on my lap.”
Savannah, her heart racing now, and feeling deep dread, closed the tailgate, then opened a back door. “Rags, kitty-kitty? Auntie, shake his bag of treats, will you?” After a thorough search under the seats and another look where she’d looked before, Savannah stood up, pushed her blond hair off her face, and muttered, “I don’t believe this.”
“What?” Margaret asked.
“Rags isn’t here.” A dazed look on her face, she asked, “How could he have possibly escaped?”
Margaret chuckled rather nervously. “You’re asking me how that cat’s mind works?”
“We’ve got to go back to the gas station.” Savannah grimaced and shook her head. “I can’t believe this. I just can’t believe this.”
“I can,” Margaret said, snickering quietly.
Chapter 4
“Here we are,” Savannah said, sounding out of breath. “Gosh, I hope he’s waiting here for us.” She opened her car door. “Stay with Lily!” Feeling that oh-so-familiar knot in the pit of her stomach, Savannah quickly stepped out of the car and headed for the door into the convenience store. If he’s in here, she thought, he’ll be attracting a crowd. Once inside, she looked around, then walked to the back of the mini-mart, checking each aisle as she went. I don’t see any sign that he’s here, she thought. I’d better look outside. She slipped out through the door and walked swiftly toward the restrooms calling, “Rags. Rags. Here kitty-kitty. Are you out here, Rags?” She entered the women’s restroom. “Not in here.” She walked to the back of the building and didn’t see him, so she returned to the restrooms and waited. When a man came out of the men’s side, she said, “Excuse me, sir.”
The man, wearing jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt and sporting a beard and a shaved head, stopped and turned toward her.
“Um, did you happen to see a cat in there? I’ve lost my cat and…”
“Your what?” he asked, grinning. “Is this some sort of joke?”
“No.” She took a breath of courage. “You see, my cat escaped and I think he’s here someplace. I just wondered…”
The man leaned against a metal post and leered at Savannah. “Your cat, huh?”
Oh, God, she thought. She put her hands up in front of her and started to back away. “You know what, never mind. I’ll find him.” As she disappeared behind the building, she heard him mumble, “Yeah, I’ll just bet you will.”
“Oh my gosh, this is so embarrassing,” she muttered to herself. Louder, she called, “Rags! Here, kitty. Rags, where are you?”
She searched among a stack of boxes and behind a trash bin. “Rags! Please Rags, come out, will you?”
Suddenly, she heard someone ask, “Kin I help you, Miss?”
Savannah jumped back and focused on a bearded man sitting among the boxes. “Oh, sorry,” she said. “I’m looking for my cat. Have you seen a cat out here?”
“I seen a lot of cats and rats and mice,” he said, laughing. “Come ’round tonight about dark and you kin take your pick of cats.”
She shook her head. “Oh, no, no, no. You see, I’m looking for a particular cat…” Realizing that she was probably wasting time, she glanced out beyond the service station, across a flat brushy area. She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Rags!” she called. She shaded her eyes and peered out over the lot while listening for a sign that he was around. But all she heard was the annoying honking of a horn. “Rags!” she called repeatedly, while the horn continued to blare. When she had walked far enough into the empty lot, she strained to peer around the building to see what the commotion was about and that’s when she saw her aunt half in and half out of her car frantically pressing on the horn.
Margaret motioned wildly with her arms and shouted, “He’s in that car! They have your cat!”
“Oh my gosh,” Savannah said, moving as fast as her baby bump allowed to where Margaret waited. She slid into the driver’s seat and turned on the ignition. “Where? Which car?”
“Damn!” Margaret said, buckling her seatbelt. “I don’t see it now. It’s a small red one.” Breathlessly, she said, “It went that way. Go south. They can’t be too far ahead of us. Vannie, I saw children in the backseat holding him. He was looking out the side window as they drove off.”
“You’re sure it was Rags?” Savannah asked, her voice an octave higher than normal.
“Oh yes, it was your cat all right.” Margaret was quiet for a moment before saying, “I’m pretty sure it was. Hey, what are the chances of a look-alike Rags showing up at the very place where we lost him?” She leaned forward in her seat. “Hurry, Vannie. You’ll never catch up to them if you don’t hurry.” After Savannah had driven only slightly over the speed limit for fifteen miles or so, Margaret shouted, “There! That’s the car! He’s in that car!” She looked at her niece. “You’re gonna have to break a few speeding laws if you want to get your cat back.” More quietly, she said, “Where do you suppose they’re taking him, anyway? The dog pound, maybe.”
“I just hope I don’t lose them.”
“Kitty, Mama,” Lily called from the backseat. “Kitty, Mama.”
“Yes, honey, we’re trying to find our kitty.”
“Yeah, hold on tightly, Lily; Mama’s speeding,” Margaret said.
“Only because that guy is. Who does he think he is, anyway?” Savannah cranked.
Margaret pointed. “Oh look, he’s turning into that tract. He must live there.”
“Good, I don’t know how I would have stopped him, otherwise.”
Margaret laughed. “Yeah, you’d have to sideswipe his car and push him off the road.”
Savannah smirked at her aunt and continued to follow the red car. “He’s pulling into that driveway.”
“Yeah,” Margaret said, “block him in so he can’t get away.”
Once Savannah had parked, she practically leaped out of the car and walked quickly toward the man, who was just stepping out of his own car. He stood in a confrontational manner and demanded, “Why are you following me? What do you want?”
“Um…I think you have my…um…my cat,” she said, trying to peer into his car windows.
“What makes you think that?” he asked.
“Our cat is missing and my aunt said…” Before she could finish, a girl of about twelve eased out of the red car holding a grey-and-white cat in her arms.
“I’m afraid you’re mistaken, lady,” the man said. “This is our cat. We just picked her up from the vet.”
When Savannah got a closer look at the cat, she cringed and stepped back. “Oh, how embarrassing. Yes, I can see that isn’t my cat.” She glared in her aunt’s direction. “My aunt was obviously mistaken.”
“Missy got a operation,” a little boy said as he climbed out of the car. “No more kittens,” he reported sadly.
“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry,” Savannah said, backing away from the man.
“Yeah, I imagine so.” He studied her. “Do you always chase down people with cats in their car?”
“Um, no. It’s just that my cat—also grey-and-white—seems to have given us the slip at that gas station up the road and my aunt saw…well, when she saw your cat, she thought it was Rags.” Panicked, she said, “I’d better get back there and see if I can find him. Oh gosh, this is awful.” Savannah started to tear up. “We just pulled him through a serious injury and now this.”
The man’s demeanor softened. “I’m really sorry, ma’am. I hope you find your cat.”
“Thank you.” She started to leave, then turned back, looked at the ch
ildren, and asked, “Do you kids like to read stories about cats? The cat I’m looking for is a character in a series of children’s books. Just a minute,” she said, going to her car. She opened the back and took two books out of a box, handing one to each of the children. “Here are the first and second books in the series. We were on our way to Los Angeles to do a book signing with Rags when…”
“Thank you,” both children said, smiling.
“Is this Rags?” the girl asked. “He looks like Missy.”
The man agreed. “Yes, he does. Well, I hope you find him, and thank you for the books.” Before Savannah could walk away, he added, “By the way, I’m a deputy sheriff. Here’s my card; give me a call if you need any help finding your cat. Maybe there’s something I can do.”
“Thank you,” Savannah said. “I’d better get back to the gas station and see what I can find out.”
She’d been driving for about five minutes before Margaret said, “I’m sorry; my mistake.” When Savannah didn’t respond, she added rather defensively, “Well, you saw that cat; it looked a lot like Rags.”
“Yeah, except she’s a female and she has long hair and a lot more white than Rags does. Darn it!” she spat. Just then her phone chimed. “Auntie, want to see who that is texting me?”
“Your husband,” Margaret said. “He wants to know how the trip is going. Says he misses you.” She paused. “What should I tell him?”
“Nothing!” Savannah insisted. “…not until we find Rags.” Once she had pulled into the gas station, she entered the convenience store. When she saw a group of people gathered around one of the counters, she decided to wait behind them and ask the clerk if she’d seen the cat. Impatiently, she waited and the crowd didn’t seem to be moving, so she stepped to the side to get a better look at what was holding things up. That’s when she saw him. “Rags!” she shouted, moving closer. “That’s my cat!” she announced.
“Says who?” a large woman with long stringy, gray hair asked.
