Okay. I have a very long story to share.

A little while ago I hung out with my friend. We hang out kind of late, usually around till midnight, then I walked with him back to his house. Tonight we were hanging out a little bit later than usual. We walked back to his house and we ended up talking on his porch for longer than usual as well. As we were talking I heard a weird noise, and I asked him what the hell that was. Lmao. He said he didnt know so we shrugged it off. We continue talking. A few minutes later Im just looking around while talking, and I see a dark shape in front of the white picket fence across the street. I didnt remember there being a little bush there, so I ask my friend what that is. Right when I said that, the bush turned it's head and started meowing loudly and pitifully. I love animals, so of course I wanted to see if it would let me pet it. I kissed to it and slowly walked across the street until I was just about 5 feet away. Then IT came up to ME. I immediately picked up the young cat/kitten, and she was shaking uncontrollably but was very good. She didnt claw, struggle, scratch, try to get away... She just chilled in my arms while I held her. It was chilly that night, and I think she was shivering because of the cold, but mostly because of how terrified she was.

My buddy's family was asleep, but I asked him if he could spare some of their cat's food. Got a sandwich bag of it and headed home. I got into my house, and I woke my mom up and her reaction was less than excited lol. I got the bathroom set up for that cat since nowhere else was quite acceptable to have her in, and gave her some food. Its now about 1am. The poor thing wont stop meowing when someone isnt with her. Im afraid that it will bother my mother, and it was me that brought it in. So I went back in to give that kitty attention. She was very good and chill, but VERY full of energy. I sat on the edge of the tub (for so long on something so uncomoftable because its not a flat tub edge that it gave my ass a bruise lmao) and played with her for a few hours. After I started feeling a bit tired and she was a bit worn out, I left the bathroom and she wasnt crying for me this time. I put our old cat carrier in there with a warm towel in it (which she most definitely did use and actually liked being in it) so she had somewhere nice to sleep

I checked the time and it was getting closer to 4am. I finally got in bed and went to sleep. The next day I spent almost 2 hours walking around the neighborhood asking literally everyone I could find if they knew anything about a missing cat. No leads. No dice. So I made a trip to the store to get her a very cheap food/water bowl, and some flea medicine just in case. My buddy's mother had let me have their cat shampoo to use a squirt to clean her up. At this point I had decided to name her "Liberty." My mother and I also made a ghetto harnass for her out of the sleeve from an old T Shirt, a safety pin, and a length of small rope so I could walk her outside.

This is when I was 100% certain she was a strictly indoor cat because she was both terrified of outside, but also incredibly curious. Thats also the first time I got her to use the restroom since I found her. Now that I had everything I needed, I needed a better place to put her than the bathroom. I set to work on deep cleaning my bedroom. It was a little bit dirty because this is a very very old house, circa late 1920s, and there was bug poison everywhere. Because the house is old and not sealed very well, we had palmetto bug issues (2+ inch long flying cockroaches). I had put this white powder poison all over the house in corners and stuff. I didnt have any pets so there was no reason to be concerned about where I put it... Now I do have one and I do have to worry. I have some sort of minor phobia when it comes to all things chemical, so I was hyper paranoid about the cat being anywhere near anything like that. I spent 4+ hours deep cleaning the absolute shit out of that room. Every. Single. Inch. From corner to corner, from floor to ceiling... I cat proofed that room and made it as clean as possible, then set up her bed in there, her bowls, and a litter box (buddy gave me a little bit of their cat litter than I fetched with a big bucket lol.)

Now everything was set for her. I was so tired and exhausted, I decided to bathe her and give her flea medicine the next day... because I didnt want to risk her crawling on me if she was that friendly with nasty flea medicine on her neck. That was a good call becuase she spent a grand total of 2-3 minutes away from me that entire night. I slept well, but woke up many times. I was so happy to have this purr box with me. She purrs VERY loudly. That friend came to hang out again that night, and I wanted to show off my work in the room. He was impressed. I put my clean clothes basket on top of my dresser to get it off the floor, and my friend told me Liberty would climb into there. I said nah, but laid down a work shirt in there to cover everything else. We hung out for a big, and I decided to check on Liberty to make sure she was okay while we were hanging out. I went in there... lo' and behold... I see her little head peeking over the top of the clothes basket. Lmao. Cute little thing. Well, a bit later my friend went home and I headed to bed.

The next day, I woke up and gave her some food, filled her water, and started doing what I needed to do. I went back in there a bit later because she seemed like she still wanted attention when I left, and I played with her on my bed. She played for a bit while I had youtube running on my phone, then she laid down next to me and went to sleep ;-; it was so adorable. I laid with her for quite a while, then I had to get up. I did some stuff, got a few things done, then decided I needed to bathe her and flea medicine her before it gets too late (and so the flea medicine can soak in before she sleeps on me that night) so around noon to 1pm I took her to the bathroom and bathed her. First time I had every bathed a cat by myself and done everything... and she was so good it was so touching. The only issue I had was her trying to jump out. She jumped out twice, I caught her the other 3 times. Used warm water, not hot, had the heater in the bathroom so she wouldnt get a chill, and kept draining the inch of water in the tub every time it started getting cold. She didnt claw, hiss, scratch, or scream. She mewed maybe 3 times the entire bath. When I went to drain and refill the tub, I would put her on my lap since she hated the sounds of it. So the crappy shorts and work shirt I was wearing got soaked. But she just relaxed on my lap, and even started purring again while she was up there. After repeating this a few times, I had finally finished lathering her, bathing her, rinsing her, and rinsing her again. She was very clean, and very wet.

Picked her up, put her on the chair I was using, and started fluffing that kitty with my towel! She started purring so much, she liked that part lol. Then I got a very very warm small towel and swaddled her up like a baby. Kept her like that for maybe 30 minutes while I got more stuff set up in my room. Then after I was sure she was dry enough, the heater was set up in my room for her if she was feeling cold, and my mother had helped me swaddle her for a bit as well as helping me put the flea medicine on her, I put her in my room. Looking down at my wet shorts and shirt, soaked with wet cat water and cat shampoo, I decided it was shower time for me too. I had a headache as well, so a hot shower sounded great. I get the clothes put in the bad to dry a bit before I was them, then jumped in the shower. It was a nice shower. Halfway through it theres a knock on the bathroom door, "WHAT?" I said loudly. "There's a man here for his cat." replied my mother. My heart dropped. I told my mother give me two minutes to dry off to talk to the guy. I cut my nice shower short and got out as quick as possible. I went to the front door to meet the guy, I asked the security question about her name, and what color she was. He gave very excrutiating detail that I had noticed in just the right light too. Her name wasn't Liberty, its Boom. I took him into my bedroom and he was so happy to see her. We talked for quite a while.

He told me about how he had to put down pets on the farm he grew up on with his own hands, and the past few days he was trying to figure out if he could steel his heart to the fact he might not find the cat... but he kept looking as hard as possible for his two distraught daughters, 11 and 14 years old. I was sad to see Liberty- *Boom go, but it made me really happy to think that on December 23, I gave the cat back to them and possibly saved two little girls' Christmas. I asked him if I could carry her back to their house, he agreed. She is so well behaved and chill I just carried her in my arms like a baby all the way down the street and she didnt even care... One thing I might not have mentioned is that the night I found her, she had already been out for at least one day and one night. She was terrified. After he looked for her so hard, and she was less than 100 feet from their house, she couldnt find her way back. Im glad I ignored the people that told me I should just put her outside, she would find her way home because like I will say soon, finding that cat and giving her up is probably one the best things to happen to me in my life. Yes, even the giving her up part. When I was showing the man his cat in my room, he had asked me how he could repay me. Im always hesitant to accept anything, but he was very adamant about it and asked me how much the flea medicine costed. I told him 15 bucks and he gave me a 20 out of his wallet. He asked me a second time what he could do to repay him.

I thought and told him, "You live in that house with the shed right? You do some crafts and woodworking right? Well, I would love if you teach me something there. Also if I get to see Boom every so often. That would be worth more than any sum of money." We shook on it right there. (Sorry if anything is repeated, Im typing this story after writing the end part. Kind of like the original Star Wars movies lol.) I had gone up and down the streets in the neighborhood asking everyone I saw. I visited a family friend who is also a head of the community, I asked the Fire Department, and I spent somewhere around 1 to 2 hours trying to find a lead on that cat. Turns out that the next day, thats what Boom's owner did. He followed the trail of people I had talked to and these are his words, "I had been asking and everyone told me the same thing. There was a very polite skinny guy with a beard asking about a cat." So, like I said, he followed the trail of people I had asked until he got to a man named Duncan who lives sort of across the street but down a little bit.

I saw my Buddy's dad walking to his house to talk to him, or maybe he was new to the neighborhood and he was introducing himself. Well, I took this opportunity to ask Duncan and he told me he had seen a kitten walking on the sidewalk in front of his house, but knew nothing else. My buddy's father didnt know anything either. But Boom's owner had made it too Duncan's house, Duncan referred him to the man across the street, my buddy's father, who then referred him to my house down the street. All that hard work did pay off, and Im glad Boom is back where she belongs, but I will miss her. At least I get visitation 😄 (Next part will detail everything after I returned the cat, and a little bit about how Boom's owner and I talked from afternoon bright, to past sundown completely dark outside. Finding that cat AND giving her up are some of the best things that have ever happened to me.)

So recently during the afternoon I had returned *Boom to her owner. Me and the guy had talked for a few hours. From it being bright outside, to it being completely dark outside. He paid for the flea medicine I had bought for her, and asked me for a second time what he could to repay me. I asked him where he lived, found out he was someone with a shed and some tools that I had really wanted to become friends with for a long time to maybe get in on some carpentry stuff. "Well sir, if you would teach me a thing or two, and let me visit Boom every once in a while, that would be more payment than I could ever ask for." Then we shook on it. He showed me how he turns $10 of materials into a product he sells for between $85 and $120. He said he would be very happy to teach me, and he showed me literally everything... like not even worried that I would start trying to make them myself in the future... Really good guy. Like I had said, we talked for a few hours there. Then he said he had to get inside and feed his daughters, we shooks hands, he closed up the shed, and I walked home. I was fully expecting to hear from him again about Saturday or so since he had told me he would be free then, and would be happy to hang out and talk some more. Well, my buddy texts me that he'll be over to hang out at my house and watch some shows at 8pm. At exactly 8pm Boom's Owner calls me out of the blue and says, "Hey, do you think you can come down to my house real quick?" I replied with, "Sure! What for?" "My business partner is here and I want you to meet him." I told him I would be there in 2 minutes tops, got out of my comfy fuzzy sweatpants, and into my jeans and took off down the road. I called my buddy while passing in front of his house asking him for just a few minutes of a rain check before we hung out. I got down to his house and he introduced to his friend and business partner. We spent about an hour and ten minutes talking, most of it about ourselves. Especially me.

He asked me what I had done so far in my life, what skills I had, what I enjoyed doing, what I wanted, what I wanted to do, what stuff I had done in school, specifics about the stuff mentioned above. He also asked me how many times I had done drugs, been arrested, and been pulled over which all ammounted to a grand total of 0 times lol. He then looked at me in the barely lit front yard and asked, "Want to come to work with me on Monday?" That kind of shocked me and I Immediately responded with, "Yes sir!" Which he answered with, "We will get you paid." Boom's Owner and I had become friends pretty quickly I think, he told me his life story in that shed, so I told him mine. We have a weird amount of similarities... and its a very very small world. His step father was an employee of my father, and he had met my father on many occasions and didnt have too great of things to say about him, which I didnt either. The business partner asked about what work I had done before, and when I told him Walgreens he asked if it was the one right down the road, which it was. He asked me if I knew someone by a specific name, I thought for a second and answered, "Yeah, I remember her! She only worked about once a month though." The business partner told me that was his girlfriend and she was doing that to keep her benefits (lol, I had figured.) That blew me away though... even smaller world man. Then he told me to look up the Six Degree Theory, then explained it a little bit. It is very very interesting. So now I had something I can make with my own hands that a master will teach me how to do, I have the knowledge and means to get the materials, and I will be able to sell it for quite a profit... and on top of that I have been asked to come into work with a man who tells me he will make sure I get paid, regardless of whether or not its going to be a learning experience, and I am not directly skilled in what he might have me doing.

This is a Christmas Present from the Universe dude. Its kicked me around a lot for too long... knock on wood, but I this is truly great. None of this would've happened if I hadn't found that kitten (she had been lost for a day before I picked her up) worked my ass off and bought important things to make sure she was healthy, gave her a bath, walked up and down the streets asking about an owner, and then gave her up when it was time. I think all these things stuck out to him, which is why he agreed to become friends and take me into his backyard workshop shed. I have been given so many great opportunities all at once because I ignored the bunch of people telling me to just put the cat outside, she'll find her way home. I honestly feel like tearing up a little thinking about this because the past couple years have been nothing but a downward spiral, a relatively lonely downward spiral, and now I've got people who told me no one will ever care about MY problems, which I do understand to be pretty true, but are willing to give me a chance and just extend their kindness and generosity if I am willing to work hard.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Everybody complaining about clouds blocking Jupiter and Saturn but there wasnt a cloud in the sky here

Why do the channels disappear when you have looked at them?

It's a little annoying

That’s so cute

Cute story

Thank you!

do you have this little arrow clicked to collapse categories?

Merry Christmas

https://youtu.be/6JFVKnrE_d8

Thank you!

You're welcome. 😄

That is a long story... I think God's got something big planned for your life

Yes a helpful person in the general chat told me about the arrows

👍

Mark Dice subscriber? <:salut:730846445732888630>

Shame on nascar and big box stores for this

Heck yes!

https://tenor.com/view/festivus-seinfeld-hug-gif-7322821

Anyone else remember Seinfeld

Got 'em! <:thinking:726878987837636698> <:okabe_sip:752819985595760650>

I got myself a classic "You Are Fake News" t-shirt with the pointing finger