A Policeman with 10 Cats

            “Jesus, Joe!  This place reeks” exclaims Martin.  How do you expect to ever keep a girlfriend when your house smells like this?”  He kicks at a yellow tabby who is trying to bat playfully at his shoelace.  “You know that saying some women say “I’m going to be an old lady with a bunch of cats.”  Well that would apply to you, but you aren’t a woman and you aren’t old”
         Joe glares at his friend, but doesn’t pay much attention to his teasing.  Joe and Martin have been on the police force together for almost fifteen years now.  They were hired together back in 1992 and were assigned the same beat.  They quickly bonded over their shared love of football, beer, and beautiful women.  The two men share a love for a lot of stuff except for one thing: cats. 
         Joe had always loved cats.  As a kid he grew up in the country surrounded by animals of all shapes and sizes.  They had horses, cows, chickens, dairy goats, a couple of dogs, and even a donkey, but Joe had always been more fascinated with the many stray tom cats that would come around the house trying to eat the dog food.  He had even tamed a couple of them against his mother’s wishes and they had lived at the house until they died of old age. 
         Now as a bachelor he still possessed this same love of cats and with no woman in his life he used cats to fill that void.  His friends like Martin, thought he was a little nuts and maybe he was, but Joe didn’t mind having all those cats.  He had ten now.  He liked to say one cat for each woman who had broken his heart, but that wasn’t exactly true.  He didn’t think there were ten women out there who would give him the time of day much less have broken his heart.
         “You should really get rid of some of these” Martin continues as they make their way to the front door.  ‘One of these days animal control is going to show up at your front door and then what are you going to do.”  They get in Martin’s beat up old pickup truck and head for the local pool hall.  It’s their night off and the two men had plans to play some pool with their other friends and drink some beer. 
         At the pool hall they are greeted by Steve who already has had a few too many beers.  “Man, Joe” he slurs “there are some beautiful woman here tonight!”  He laughs overly loud and slaps Joe on the back.
         “Shit Steve! Don’t you remember you’re a married man?”
         “Oh, I know that” responds Stave again a little louder.
         Joe, Martin, Steve, and two of their other buddies Chris and Dave settle into a couple games of pool and a few pitchers of beer.  However Joe can’t keep his eyes off the tall brunette in the mini skirt across the room.
         “I think she looked at me” he whispers to Martin.  “Do you think she looked at me? I mean I think she did.”
         “Shutup and shoot it’s your turn” responds Martin.
         The pool game continues until finally Joe can’t take it anymore.  “I’m going to go talk to her” he tells Chris.  Chris only nods however Steve who has overheard them yells out drunkenly “Go Joe, go get yourself a nice piece of…”  He is stopped suddenly by Martin who jabs him hard in the side with a pool cue.
         Taking a deep breath Joe approaches the woman at the bar.  Wiping his hands on his jeans he smiles and says “Hi, I’m Joe.”
         The brunette turns and smiles back.  “Hello Joe, I’m Rebecca.”  She shakes his hand and cheers go up from the other side of the room. 
         “Ignore them, please.”
         Rebecca laughs “sit down won’t you.”  She pats the stool next to her and Joe takes a seat.
         They start talking and before Joe realizes it they have been talking for a couple hours.  His friends are almost too drunk to remember that he is still there and his nerves have calmed down enough that he isn’t flailing around for intelligent things to say.
         Bolstered by the alcohol in his system Joe turns to Rebecca “do you want to go back to my place?”
         “I’d love to. Let me get my purse.”
         They stand and head for the door.  At the door Joe pauses for a moment.  “Quick question, do you like cats?”
         “Oh, I love them,” responds Rebecca with a grin.  “They’re just so cute.”
         As the door closes behind them Steve yells out “boy, she has no idea what she is getting herself into.  Does she, boys?”
         The men shake their heads.