It’s 7:30 at night and the FedEx guy with the Chewy.com shipment has not yet arrived. I fed the cats the last of the food at breakfast, I checked the message from Chewy saying “Your shipment is on the way” supposedly on the truck at 9:04 this morning. Should be here in time for afternoon tea (I hope) and dinner for sure. But no, it’s not. The cats are out of food and they are not happy! Well, okay, maybe not entirely out of food — there is the crunch (as we call the dry food around here), but that’s not really dinner, is it?
About tea time they had started their usual litany of meows, chirps and gurgles — all to remind me that it was time for a snack. After all, they had missed their post-breakfast, pre-lunch treat (outta those, too!) and had no lunch to speak of — something I’d gotten at a store promotion a few months back which wasn’t much more than a mouthful each — and now, Now! — it’s past dinner time.
Cats are amazing animals. They finally gave up. They finally all curled up in their respective beds and slept — or feigned sleep. At least they were quiet. I had not simply replenished, but totally changed out the crunch that had been sitting there, untouched, for days. At least there is something they can eat, but no, they’d rather starve than go back to eating crunch — especially after I (foolishly?) upgraded their food a few weeks back. Now even the old familiar Friskies is suspect. They want the stuff that comes in the little 2.8 ounce pouch for $1.87 which works out to over $9 a pound. Why don’t I just buy them Prime Rib? Why don’t I just bring in a private chef to cook for them? No, really, it’s coming to that. You’ve seem the ads on TV. “I feed my pet like family.” Well, lemme tell you, family doesn’t eat as well as these cats.
As the night wears on, I continue to check the front door. I recall that one time I found a shipment at my front door early in the morning, as though Santa had snuck in sometime in the middle of the night and left it for me. Had I stopped to check the FedEx website, I would have found that they stop delivering at 7:00. I coulda made an emergency trip to the market, but no, I continued to hope.
Which is why at 5 o’clock this morning I was pulling on yesterday’s clothes and heading to the 7-11. In the dark, and the cold and the wind. I knew the price would be outrageous, and it was. It was double what it would be at the market, but the market doesn’t open until 8:00. In Las Vegas!! If you’re an old-timer, you remember that markets were open 24 hours a day. You could get cat food — or bourbon — at 2:30 in the morning. Well, we’re a big city now and we don’t do that anymore.
At the 7-11, there is a young man leaning on the counter chatting up the cute clerk. I interrupt long enough to ask where the cat food is and, heck, while I’m at it I’ll get some milk, too. The young man insists on paying. “Pay it forward,” he tells me. I guess it was about $5 and I promise I’ll do the same for someone else. I told him I’d pray for him, and I have. A kind young man — there should be more like him.
Back at home are those creatures delighted to hear the top pop off that little can? You betcha! Ever had a cat climb up your leg? At least I’m wearing jeans so it doesn’t hurt quite so much, but dang, those claws are sharp! Let that be a lesson to me to not trust Chewy and FedEx! At this point I think to Google FedEx and discover that yes, they deliver on Sunday, sometimes, somewhere. Maybe. I still had one can, but that’ll not last past noon. Well, obviously, this is not gonna work, so after I’ve fed the flea-lines, fixed my own breakfast and read the paper, I head out to the real market which is finally open. I buy up all the stuff that’s on “close-out” which I’d gotten last week because it’s “grain free” so maybe they won’t urp it up all over the place. They’d seemed to like it. Let’s see if they’ll still like it when it’s on sale. (They can tell, you know.)
And as I pull into my driveway, what do I see sitting right by my front door? Oh yeah – you know it. The big Chewy.com box.
Heck with it, I’m going back to bed.
MeOW! Cats do have their rights. Haha.
Heart rending tale of deprivation and the inevitable failure of delivery infrastructure. 😿 Kind young man a heartwarming plot twist. But, our super-human heroine braving the elements for her fur-lines? We’re surprised – not!
I love chewy.com, but after ordering litter and food together and seeing how heavy the box was for the Fedex guy (and for me), I stopped ordering litter. It’s heavy enough with $50 worth of food.
I didn’t realize LV doesn’t have late night/early morning hours at markets. Bummer.
I’m glad to hear they got fed, finally.
This is why I don’t have cat or any other animals. Most don’t survive with my busy schedule… I never had a pet as a child – except for Peanut the perroquet who flew over mom’s head in the house while dad was climbing the tree in our front year to see what kind of bird was resting in it.. He/She was easy care.. ..