Kittens and lockdown

Day 2: Write about a man who owns at least three cats

The Covid lockout didn’t bother Jackson at all, well almost not at all. He stood with his coffee on the patio that overlooked the Med. He’d been caught while vacationing in Southern France. Since he’d been staying at his sister’s vacation home and since he could work as long as the WIFI (weefee) as the French called it, life was good.

He did get lonely sometimes, but even if there were no lockout, he couldn’t speak French.

Since the water was close enough to the house, he decided to go for a swim. When he returned, dripping wet, he realized he hadn’t closed the patio door. Another advantage of the lockout was thieves were locked down too.

A calico cat was stretched out on the couch. Stuck to her nipple was a calico kitten. Jackson was not an animal person. Pets, although cute, complicated life. The mother cat was pretty and the kitten, whose eyes were still closed, was also cute.

“Shoo, go home,” he said. As he watched her run out the door he added, “You forgot your kitten.”

He wasn’t sure what to do with an unweaned kitten. Before he could think of the solution, the mother cat was back with a second kitten. When he said “shoo,” she just looked at him.

“Okay, you can stay, but just for tonight.

Lockdown rules allowed a person to be out for 30 minutes and to go 10 kilometers from the house. He filled out the required attestation and headed for the grocery where after sanitizing his hands and pulling up his mask, he was able to buy cat food and kitty litter. He used the trip to buy some hamburger and chips for himself.

“Just for tonight,” he said when he fed the mother cat. She looked at him.

The next day he said to her, “Okay, one day more.”

The kittens opened their eyes.

They began to walk.

When Jackson was coding for his company back in Boston, he found himself stopping to watch them play. The first time he gave them milk in a saucer they walked in it.

He named the kittens One and Two. The mother cat he called Mom.

President Macron spoke at 8 p.m. saying the lockdown was being extended.

Jackson knew he needed to go home at some point, but he worried about the cat family. He wondered what he needed to do to take them back to the States. On-line he learned the requirements. He called the airline to see what was needed to ship three cats from Toulouse to Boston.

He was only half disappointed when he discovered it was doable.

453 words