Someone Stole White Cat Story

2010

This Father's Day my dad and Beverly drove up from Long Beach to spend the weekend with us. It was actually quite a special occasion as I haven't spent Father's Day with my dad since I was a teenager. AND my dad has never been to San Francisco even though he has lived most of his life in California (a fact I find odd).

I wanted to show them the city and decided we would go on the same trip we went on when my good friend Courtney *came down for a whirlwind 32 hours in the city vacation. Because really, that was my first absolutely amazing day in San Francisco.

Bonus! It's PRIDE month! We found these beauties proudly displayed all over the city. Not only were there Rainbow Flags flying in every district, but there are stickers in store fronts, and every hotel room in the city is booked for PRIDE. 

 

We walked around Union Square photographing all of the beautiful architecture the city has to offer then took a cable car ride down to Fisherman's Wharf on accident. I've been to Fisherman's Wharf. I don't like Fisherman's Wharf. It is touristy and crowded, it smells bad and there is a terrible man there scaring the crap out of people for fun and tips. Nevertheless, we ended up here so we had lunch and went on our way down to one of the piers to get a better look at the Golden Gate Bridge.

We passed by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and walked around there for a bit checking out all the cool ships when we saw this sweet little row boat just sitting in the sand. Who could resist right?  I sat down and prepared my camera so I could torture everyone and make them pretend to row while I snapped shots of them.

In the excitement of the moment I didn't notice Austin had handed me his most beloved stuffed cat in the world. The cat he never leaves the house with out. The cat that talks to him, gives him advice and sits on his shoulder. She's always there to keep him company no matter what he is doing. She watches movies with us, eats dinner with us, and every time we are at the store she gets an imaginary bag of food and litter for her.

He handed her to me thinking I am paying attention. I wasn't. I was digging my camera from my bag and planning the shots I was going to take in my head. Lost at sea. Happy couple rowing down a lazy river. I was planning our options.

Too much HAHA pretty soon BOOHOO. 

The conversation went like this:

                                                            Austin: Where's White Cat?

Mom:  I don't know.  Where did you put her?

Austin: I gave her to you?!?!

Mom: When?

Oh crap moment. Everyone starts frantically looking for White Cat. After a couple minutes it was obvious someone took her. There were some children close by so I asked their mother if she had seen the stuffed cat. Her face told me she had. It also told me she was about to give me bad news. She had seen White Cat. She had also seen some guys playing with it. That's all I needed to hear and I was off  without another word down the pier asking everyone who fit the description. Beverly headed onto the boats to ask people. I looked behind me and saw Monty and Austin walking not to far behind and Austin is bawling.

I'm yelling at Monty, "Go the other way!!! Stop everyone leaving the pier!!!!" This was serious stuff folks. If these people got away with White Cat we were in for some serious heartache.  The kind of heartache you hope your sweet, young child won't have experience. It is most certainly the kind you yourself don't want to be the cause of!

Beverly and I get to the end of the pier and we haven't found her and no one has seen her. I don't know what to do. Why in the world would someone take a worn stuffed animal covered in band aids, sitting in the sand?  The place was FULL of children nearby! Why? Why? Why? 

I'm starting to tear up because I am about to tell Austin his stuffed cat whom he calls his daughter and me her grandmother- this cat he sleeps with every night- this cat he calls out to when he can't find her and makes a "Meow" noise for her when he does find her- is gone. I see my most precious walking towards me and all I can think is, "I'm sorry honey. I couldn't find her."

But there she was! Sitting in her familiar place on his shoulder. Apparently, after I screamed at Monty like a crazy person he went back to the woman I was talking to and she described the people she saw with White Cat to him and Monty remembered who they were! They were the guys who were in the boat before us and Monty knows which way they went!

Monty marched after them begging Austin to stay with Grandpa so he won't be slowed down because now he is no longer worried, he is pissed. He spots them sitting on a grassy knoll outside the pier playing with White Cat. Now he's REALLY pissed wants Austin to stay with Grandpa for totally different reasons.

Monty walked up to them and sternly says, "Give that to me." There were some words said. Some started with an F some with an A. All of them hilarious to picture coming out of Monty's cool, mild mannered mouth.

And with that we had her back.

Come to find out they saw White Cat, thought she looked so beautiful sitting on the beach looking as "ragged" as she did that they wanted to take her. Austin's response to this was, "Well your heart is ragged!!!" Oh that's right he followed Monty for the entire venture. He was not going to abandoned his little girl to some thieving scoundrels!

All day long we were all just wowed we found her. Amazed! We all felt so lucky and so grateful Monty was so quick on his feet.

We needed to walk off all the adrenaline of situation stirred up so we headed down the to the beach to cool off.

Then right on to a stiff drink to settle our frazzled nerves.

Cheers to finding White Cat! And family! And friends! And most of all Father's who are always ready to swoop in and save the day like our own personal Superman!