Miracle in the middle of nowhere

It was a hot and humid morning when the phone call came.  After everything else that had happened she thought she could deal with anything, but this was too much.

Last night she had gone home from work with a coworker.  Pizza, a rented movie, girl talk, life was taking on a rhythm she'd only seen in movies or read about up till now.  Maybe she was over the hump.  Maybe things would even out now?

But the call ended that!  It was Matthew, her roommate, calling to let her know that at 1:30 he was setting off bug bombs.  All three floors would be rid of fleas and any pets left in the house would be disposed of without any more discussion.  Three hours to find homes for five kittens and a mother cat!  Who did he think she was?  A miracle worker?

To be fair she had been warned by her mother and others that letting the cat outside was a bad idea.  Not only did it bring in fleas and ticks, but it came back pregnant twice in six months.  Her friends were saturated with kittens, nobody wanted another one no matter how cute it was.

Calls to all the local vets and shelters turned up nothing.  They were all overrun with cats and not taking anymore, especially not six more, so borrowing a carrier from a friend she loaded up Selena and her brood and set off in the car.  Searching for some place they might have a chance to survive. 

She'd heard her grandfather tell stories about dropping kittens off, one at a time near school yards at lunch time back in the sixties, but her kittens were too young to drop off and today was Saturday.  She thought about trying to keep them in the car till she found them homes, but the heat index was 106, no one could stay in a car on a day like today.

So the only alternative was to "dump" them, which was probably illegal, but there didn't seem to be any alternative.  Dump them herself or have her roommate get rid of them?  She opted for the former and that was how she found herself driving down a quiet country road in the middle of nowhere.

Actually it wasn't quite nowhere, there were farm houses not too far away.  It was the best of a lot of terrible choices.  Stopping the car, she got out and opened the carrier door while looking furtively around.  As soon as all 24 furry little legs were in the grass she popped the carrier back into the car and drove away in tears.

It wasn't until five miles later that she realized her cell phone must have fallen out of her pocket when she dumped the kittens.  She turned the car around and drove back, searching the road for familiar signs, hoping her phone would show up. 

She found it -- along with all the kittens, three of them in the middle of the road and a car coming!  Turning off the key, she glanced in the rear view mirror and saw two more cars coming!  Suddenly her quiet country road had become a thorough fare!  Leaving the car right in the middle of the road she jumped out and began gathering up the kittens, trying to get them all safely back on the grassy area. 

People in the other cars got out too, a woman with two small girls, another young woman and soon a small crowd had gathered around the mother cat and five week old kittens.  Amidst much oohing and ah-ing people began trying to divvy them up. 

The girl slipped silently back into her car and looking back saw that all the kittens and the mother, too, had been "adopted" by the people in the cars who just assumed she had stopped to save the furry little family, like they had.

Maybe things were evening out.