Herding Cats

While the saying is supposed to be descriptive of a ridiculous task, my husband and I were herding cats a week ago, the day the house went on the market. We thought that we could put all three cats in our hound dog's old crate which is quite large while people were looking at the house. That way we wouldn't have to worry about them bothering people or being let out or being closed up somewhere unknown. There is a sort of family joke that I always have a plan and my husband plays everything by ear. That turned out to be prophetic not comedic.

My husband caught all three cats individually and put them in the crate, but since we were supposed to be having three showings back to back, the cats would be locked up for approximately three hours. So my husband asked me if I could help him hold the cats in the crate while he put in their bedding and some food. I thought it was a pretty ridiculous order of events but since the cats were already in the crate I didn't have much choice. So my husband opened the door a crack which of course meant that cat number one came shooting out of their like a spit wad.

I bent down and stepped forward to grab the cat while simultaneously my husband stuck out his leg to prevent the cat from escaping. I tripped over his leg that I never saw, holding the cat in my arms, and crashed down on the cement floor of the basement. I broke two ribs, injured my elbow, hurt my knee, and let go of the cat. I am still in tremendous pain from the ribs but there isn't much that can be done for ribs. The only good outcome is that I haven't been able to help pack up our goods and even that probably isn't a good outcome since my husband's packing and labeling may take months if not longer to figure out.

An old family friend who spent his career as a gerontologist at Johns Hopkins has always said that the quickest way to true old age is to suffer a fall.