Shopping News--The Cat! Teresa Shirkie Shopper's real name is "Shopping News."--For a reason. . . One morning when I was about to take my husband, Bernie, to work, I noticed a meowing coming from somewhere in the car. We looked under the hood of the car and nothing. Bernie thought I was just hearing things, so we got into the car and proceeded to drive. As soon as we had got around the corner, I told Bernie, "I STILL hear it!" We stopped right away at the side of the road, and by this time Bernie heard the same meowing! He promptly got out, and going under the car, he started to explore. To his amazement he saw a small, skinny tail dangling from just under the muffler. He tried gently to give the tail a pull, with no results. There was nothing to be done but to give that tail a ruthless yank, and with that mighty pull out came a kitten! Somehow that little jigger had gotten himself on top of the muffler and had been trapped and couldn't get himself out! Well! Just then a guy that Bernie works with came by and yelled, "Bernie, you don't drive to work under the car! You get into the car!" With that he told Bernie he would drive him to work, and guess who got stuck looking after that kitten? Well I took him home and stuffed him into the bathroom with a litter box and a dish of food and shut the door. After all, I had a paper route to be delivered that morning. No time to be playing with stray cats! The paper I was delivering was the "Shopping News." Therefore that cat became "Shopping News"—“Shopper” for short, and ever since that day Shopper been Bernie's boss. And my big black cat, "Sir Galahad" became Shopper’s boss. And as for me? I’m no longer a boss--I have become a referee for the three of them! PS: Shopping News is now about ten years old and my Sir Galahad died at the ago of 16 two years ago. © Teresa Shirkie [ Return to Index of Articles ] [ HOME PAGE ]