May 27, 2013
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The Catsitter
This past weekend I was kind of cat sitting for my friends who were out of town. Now I should preface this by saying that I HATE cats. In fact, I’m not an animal person in the least. But that being said, my thoughts on animals is that I leave them alone if they leave me alone. We have an understanding. I don’t wish animals any ill will; I don’t think it is okay to abuse animals at all, but I’m just not a pet person. My friend probably didn’t know that when she asked me to cat sit, but it’s okay. Part of the problem is that she lives about 45 minutes from me in Chicago’s Lincoln Park so I had to find some excuses to go to the city, which is not a bad thing, shit I love the city.
So Thursday night I drove up there after work to feed the cats for the first time. I go to try to get into the building and neither of the keys she gave me worked. I tried for quite a long time to get in but to no avail. I called her and left her a message but she didn’t call back. I decided that maybe I would buzz the neighbors and beg them to let me in, but shit, it was 9 at night and I was a stranger trying to get into the building. I thought about trying to get in the back way but didn’t want to get myself arrested. I waited for her to call back but she never did and after about 45 minutes I left.
Friday I spent much of the day very stressed out wondering how the fuck I was going to get into the building to feed those damn cats. She did finally text me and I downplayed not being able to get in as I didn’t want to worry her, but the reality was that I was that I had no fucking idea how I was going to get in that building and feed those cats. I knew though that at the very least I had to try.
I had a class in the city on Saturday morning so the plan was to sleep there overnight as it was a hell of a lot closer than coming all the way from the burbs. But first I had to get in the fucking building. I managed to get out there a little bit earlier, this time about 8:15 or so. Of course I tried the key again and it didn’t work. But, then I saw a lady who was taking her garbage out and asked her if she lived there and she said yes. I explained the situation and she said she worked with my friend’s husband as well and that she would love to let me in. I was very grateful and she asked me if I was going to be needing to get back in later in the weekend. I explained to her I would and asked her if she could buzz me in. She said instead she could give me her number and I could call her. In fact she insisted that I just take her number. I told her I didn’t want to put her out and didn’t want her to have to stay home all weekend but she said she didn’t care; after all her husband was out of town for the whole weekend and she had nothing to do. I took the number and thanked her for her help and went into the apartment.
The next morning I was thinking about it and it occurred to me that she very well might have been hitting on me. Or not. I mean she could have been just being nice. Or maybe she wanted me. I honestly don’t know. I’m dense when it comes to things like this. Fortunately I was able to get another spare key that my friend had in the house so I never actually needed to bother the neighbor again but I have to wonder if she wanted me to bother her.
