Feline Overflow

This is a response to a writing prompt.

http://community.livejournal.com/nanowrimo/1610639.html

There were 17 cats living in Larry's basement. He hadn't meant to collect strays. He was hardly a crazy cat lady being a male in his 30's with a steady job as manager of a Burger King. It had just... happened. There was the calico two months ago that was nearly hit by a car. He took it to the vet and fell in love. It was a female and he named her Tally. Also, not all of them were strays. His next cat, he had adopted as a kitten when one of his neighbor's cats had a litter. He was white with black spots and Larry named him Carlos. It had snowballed from there. Now Larry had 17 pet cats and even with his income he had nearly gone broke buying them food, toys, and litter. Not that they really needed toys having so many other cats to play with. There were so many cats they had their own community and Larry felt like an intruder in their midst.

Larry bought 17 cat food cans a day and he always went to the supermarket down the street. He usually went online at counter #7 where the guy Bob knew him. He always asked how the cats were doing and offered to come over and help take care of them. Sometimes Bob said he'd help take care of Larry and Larry wondered if that was meant to be a joke of if Bob thought that Larry was turning into a male version of a crazy cat lady. This time though, Bob wasn't behind counter #7. There was a girl. She was standing behind the counter, giving him this root beer-float kind of smile.

Larry smile back uncertainly.

"What happened to Bob?" he asked.

She scanned his cat food cans. "He's visiting his grandparents upstate. He told me about you. Apparently you're single handedly keeping Friskies in business."

Larry laughed nervously, "You must think I'm crazy."

"Nah, you're just eccentric," she said, scanning the last of the cans and totaling up his bill. "I promise I won't turn you in."

"Thanks," he said, swiping his credit card. Friskies was expensive but his cats wouldn't eat anything else.

She looked up at him through her eyelashes. "Take me to see them sometime?"

Startled, Larry said, "Uh, sure... You really want to? My basement is an absolute madhouse."

She finished with his credit card and gave it back to him, "I love cats. I have two of my own. You'll have to bag the cat food yourself." She pointed at the sign over the counter.

Larry looked up at the sign. SELF SERVICE BAGGING He blushed, 'I knew that. Tell me about your cats." He started bagging the cat food cans.

"I have a male, 5 years old. His name is Froggy because he looks like a frog when he jumps. He's black with yellow eyes. I also have a female, 3 years. Her name is Bopsie. I didn't name her; I adopted her from a shelter. She's a domestic shorthair, grey striped."

Larry finished bagging the cat food. He had double bagged everything for ease with lifting. "They sound like fun."

She smiled. "Oh wow, I never told you my name. I'm Susan Figgas."

"I'm Larry Saggis. Nice to meet you."

They shook hands. He finished putting the bags in the shopping cart that he had brought along.

"Susan, when do you get off from work?"

"In two hours. What hours do you work?"

"Your typical 9-5. Want to come by tomorrow around nineish?"

"Sure."

"Great."

The man online behind Larry started yelling. "Are you two lovebirds gone? You're holding up the line."

Larry held up his hands in supplication. "I'm done, I'm done."

"Good," the man grumbled. He went to the counter with a tub of ice cream. Larry looked closer; it was a tub of lemon sherbet. Which was leaking.

"Susan," he began."

It was too late. She had already picked it up to scan it and the lid had lifted up all the way spilling lemon sherbet all over the counter.

"Oh great, now I have to clean this up," Susan groaned. "Did you even look when you took this out of the freezer? The last one on the left on Aisle #3 isn't working right. I thought it was emptied out but I guess it wasn't. Stupid slacker Ernie."

The man wasn't happy about this. "I didn't notice and it isn't my fault. This was the last one and lemon sherbet is my favorite."

Larry stepped in, "Susan, do you want help cleaning it up?"

She shook her head. "Thanks Larry, but I've got it."

She took out a washcloth from under the counter and wiped up the mess. "These kinds of things happen more often than you'd think."

"Well, if you're ok..."

"I am, Larry. You can go."

Larry left.