I am an animal lover.  I’m especially fond of cats and I’d do almost anything to bring joy and comfort to a cat that crosses my path.

A couple of years ago Don and I were staying with my mom for the weekend.   The sun was going down but it wasn’t completely dark yet.  Don was outside visiting with my brother and I came outside to join the conversation but before I got to where the guys were, I heard some very loud MEOWS off in the distance.  I looked around and eventually saw a little black face across the highway peeking out between the tall grass.  He was very verbal and for a fluent meow translator like myself,  I knew exactly what he was saying.  “I’m lost, I’m hungry, I can’t find my mom and I’M AFRAID OF THE DARK!!!” I walked over to him and with a tiny bit of coaxing, he was my new friend.  We bonded very quickly and he started to purr and I knew I had a situation on my paws…er, ah, I mean hands that would require some quick thinking.  I knew I couldn’t take him to Bismarck as Don is terribly allergic to cats.  I knew mom wouldn’t want him as she is not the cat type and then I thought about my sister!  They have a huge shed filled with bails that cats had come and gone from for years.  It was sort of like a cat hotel.   I just knew they wouldn’t care if I took my new little vibrating fur ball there, so he and I piled into my car.  If you’ve ever invited a cat to be a passenger in your car, you know how much they don’t like it.  He meowed and carried on and gave me all kinds of reasons about how happy I was that my sister only lived two miles away.  During the drive I mapped out my plan.  I knew I had to get the kitten in the shed.  I knew I needed to shut the door and I knew I needed to get out of the yard before he saw me leave so he wouldn’t try to follow me.  By this time it was pretty dark so I drove up as close to the shed as I possibly could and left my lights on so I could see inside.  I carried my little friend into his new home and positioned him in front of the food dish and made my way out the door and slammed it shut.  I hopped in my car and all of a sudden, I felt as if I was a stunt woman in an action adventure movie and I was overcome with the desire to whip my car around in a circle and peel out!!!  In reality, I was running from a kitten.  For a brief moment though, there was nothing about this plan that didn’t make sense, that was until my bumper matched wits with the solid steel windmill I didn’t see when I pulled in the yard.  OUCH! The mark it left on my car was not pretty.  The bumper sustained very noticeable injuries.  I wasn’t exactly sure why, but it appeared to have gotten caught on something.  I didn’t realize until the next day that my passenger side front tire actually rolled inside the wheel rim dad used as the base of this windmill when he built it.  My sister had flowers planted in the rim and told me the ones with the tire tracks on them didn’t survive but the ones that were still standing looked great.   I tried to laugh but I had a terrible pit in my stomach because I realized my cat rescue was going to cost me $500.  On the bright side, “Bumper” as my brother-in-law so affectionately named him, decided he liked his new home and became a very happy, well adjusted adult cat.

I’m quite sure working for an insurance company that handles auto claims would never be boring provided everyone that reports accidents is as honest and as full of details as I am.  At one point, during my conversation with my claims person, they literally laughed out loud!