Here is an idea for a Christmas comic I will, or someone will draw someday.
CHRISTMAS CAT
The store clerk, whom had just woken, suddenly startled by the jingle of bells, the kind that hang inside of small shops to inform store clerks of incoming customers, stood up straight and with a friendly smile welcomed the man who entered from the cold December weather. Christmas Eve was always full of activity at this local pet store, but the man shaking snow off of his entire body and noticeably relieved to be in from the bitter cold now in the toasty little shop, noticed he was alone in the store apart from the yawning store clerk.
“Where might I find your kittens?” Said the man, still shaking even more snow off of his person.
“The kittens,” the store clerk said, poorly suppressed yet another yawn”are in the back, sir.”
The man proceeded towards the kittens, still shivering and began thinking of his car that he left outside still running. The climate was particularly cold for this time of the year, and the streets, surprisingly for eleven a.m. on the last day for shopping before Christmas, were empty. He felt that his car would be safe running if he just hurried in pet store. Upon locating the baby cats, which some call kitties, including his youngest daughter of three girls, in which the present was intended for, he saw that finding the right one wouldn’t be a problem, for the reason that only one tiny kitten remained.
The kitten stretched upon the arrival of the man. It was white and after a bath could be real fluffy, but for now it’s hair was very matted. The kitten looked at him and rose to its feet, assuming the position of a pet that was accustomed to their owners picking them up on arrival. The man swooped up the kitten with one hand and raised it high. “How much for this runt?” asked the man, holding up the young feline for the store clerk to see the tiny kitten perfectly balled in the palm of his one raised hand.
Not having to worry about another mouth to feed over Christmas plus the whole Christmas bull-crap feeling entered the clerks soul and he responded with a “For him?” followed by a painfully-worthless-lengthy pause “ Five bucks.”
“I’ll take it!” Replied the pleased man, as he brought down and cradled the small animal returning to the front of the store where the clerk awaited him. “I’ll need all the things that come with these sorts of pets.” He told the clerk.
Money was exchanged and goods were purchased. The man returned to the warmth of his car with his procurement. The roads were still extraordinarily empty, and the ride home was long due to arctic style roads. The snow plows seemed to just give up, they could do nothing against this storm.
The man’s home was bustling, his wife, whom was busy making dinner for that evening, greeted him with a kiss, one that was rare for their relationship, upon seeing his buy.
“Oh good, you got one.” She spoke as if he had just done the greatest thing in the world. “Sam is going to freak. Earlier today, she was asking me if she doesn’t get a kitty from Santa if we could we get one this spring. I told her that I doubted it, and she left the room hanging her head. It was so cute.” She laughed almost manically and continued. “If you would have came home empty handed I would have felt terribly.” She kissed him again, another rare and passionate one. You could tell she felt bad for lying to her child; she had justified it to herself as making the good news of actually getting a kitty even better.
“Where is our little one, by the way?” he replied after the second kiss. Putting down his bags he let his wife have a better view of the cat. “It needs a good bath, and I think it will look a lot better.” By the look in his wife’s eyes he could tell she wasn’t as pleased as she was just seconds ago. “What do you think of it? It was the last one I really had no other options.” He was worried that he was going to have to go back out and find another.
“It is quite lovely.” She said after some time of examining the kitten. “Oh, it’s a girl, isn’t that just wonderful!”
The parents found the youngest of their three children down stairs in her bedroom. She had been cleaning up her room for one last go at being really good for Santa. She freaked when she saw the kitten in her fathers hands, the scream was heard through out the house and brought the two other siblings in running. They were turn equally excited about the new member of the family. The afternoon was spent first bathing (and after it was dried and reveled to be actually quit fluffy), followed by intense cuddling and playing with the new family member they named Fluffy.
After a long afternoon of playing Fluffy was exhausted and let the girls know it by sleeping the entire time they prepared to go to the family Christmas party. The two youngest daughters wanted to bring fluffy with them, but their mother and father wouldn’t permit it. “Kittens need their rest.” They were told. After many kisses and tight hugs from everyone including the man, the kitten returned to sleep. The family left the house and went to the party.
The family visit was short at the festive celebration, they were extremely excited to see Fluffy again. The roads were still very icy but the storm had let up and you could see Christmas lights every where. They enjoyed the ride, the mood in the car was high. It wasn’t until the wife said “Oh my God, look! There’s a fire over there! It looks close to our house.” They rushed that last couple of blocks to there home to see it burning with the fire department doing its best to stop it. The neighborhood was all out standing around watching the fire.
The house burned and it burned quick, everything was destroyed, all the Christmas presents unopened would never bee seen by the recipients to whom they were for. None of that seemed to matter much compared to the feeling of loss for Fluffy. In the short time that the family knew the pet they had all fallen madly in love with it, the pain was horrible for all of them. After talking with the police, they learned the cause of the fire was a mystery. Neighbor after neighbor invited them into their homes for the night, but the family needed to leave, they decided to stay with the man’s parent.
The crowd dispersed after all of excitement died down. The family was the first to go, followed by the watchers after they had all told their own versions of the fire and discussed what could have caused it, finally after the embers all died down the fire department left. The snow picked back up and came down harder and harder, it was a miracle that Fluffy was even seen by the young boy across the street.
The little boy was starting out his living room window looking for Santa, worried that all the people outside might have made him skip this neighborhood, he was told that Santa hated to be seen. He saw some movement in the blizzard and on further examination he saw a poor little kitty. He threw on his coat and boots and ran out to grab Fluffy and saved her from the harsh night. His parents agreed that the cat needed a place for the night and in the morning they would see if they could find the rightful owners.
For the second time that night the fire department returned to that same street and fought a fire across from one they had earlier unsuccessfully battled, this one seemed like another substantial failure. For the second time that night a neighborhood lost another house this time full of people. After the long time of commotion and tears for the loss of their friends and neighbors the watchers all went back into their homes. The house down the street soon filled with its occupants, the youngest holding a cat she found outside that none of the other neighbors recognized. They took the fluffy cat in with the intent to find the true owners in the morning; this had to be some ones Christmas cat they thought. That house and a few others were added to the list of tragedies and deaths for that block on that Christmas holiday.