13 Nov Perma Prints
No, I’m not talking about the good kind of prints, like photograph prints. I’m talking about animal prints, more specifically, cat prints. Long, frustrating story short, I’m getting my shower redone in my bathroom. We are talking complete teardown of walls, tile, underlying cement, and replacing it with all new stuff in the reverse order. So the project is coming to an end (finally), the new walls are up and the cement floor was applied. The contractor doing the work forgot to close the bathroom door after he was done working for the day, and my curious/pain-in-the-ass/relentless cat, Coal, decided to investigate the newly poured cement. Sure enough, I walk into the bathroom and see about a dozen cat prints pressed deeply into the fresh mix. Of course I’m thinking “Ok, so if I was a cat, I’d be curious, and I might take a step in to look around.” Why would he continue to step after sinks a paw into cement? How about 12 or so more times? I really wonder about this cat sometimes. As mad as I was, I had to appreciate the humor in the situation and snapped a couple pics with a P ‘n S real quick. Maybe he felt like leaving his mark, much like a kid will write his name in a wet sidewalk. Coal can’t write so I guess a series of paw prints is the next best thing.
At first I kinda just said “well, the contractor guy is gonna be pissed when he sees this.” But then I started to wonder what I’d do if I came back to work and saw cat prints in my work, resulting in setting me back another day. I wouldn’t feel too confident in the health and safety for my cat. And you know that my cat would have perfect timing in greeting the contractor as he first lays eyes on the prints… Coal would walk in the bathroom and be like “hey, what’s up, contractor guy, what does it take to get some more food around here?” So for my cat’s sake, I put a little more thought into the situation. Luckily, the contractor left some of the mix in a bucket at the end of the day, and it was still wet. I snagged a tool and filled in prints, smoothing it back out. Took me about 30 minutes to do, and after, I walked out to where my cat was nice and comfy on the couch. Of course, like all cats, he is on the constant journey to attain more sleep, but he ever-so-slightly opens his eyes to see who was standing in his proximity. I simply go “just so you know, I just saved your life, you’re welcome,” and went to bed.
I left a letter for the contractor explaining that if he saw a couple of off-looking patches it was because of my nosey cat, and I patched it up. In the note I apologized for Coal’s behavior, literally saying “sorry my cat is a dumbass…”
