Rocky

I really think a yellow Beetle has the power to incite goodwill in the hearts of man. Two cases in point, both drawn from this evening:

1.) I'd parked my car on the street on Sunday, and when I came to get it this evening I saw it was in an "emergency no parking area." Had been for two days. It was in front of a building that seemed to be in the process of being demolished, in fact, and there was a dumpster just behind my car. Yet Grommit had not been towed or ticketed.

2.) Upon reaching my destination I couldn't find legal parking, so decided to squat in front of a "diplomatic cars only: romanian embassy" sign. It didn't have hours posted, but I thought no one would need to park at the Romanian embassy at 8:30 p.m. However, as I got out of my car a guy came out and told me I couldn't park there.
"Not even for ten minutes?" I asked.
"For ten minutes, ok. But no longer," he answered in his (presumably) Romanian accent.

And you know what? I'm pretty sure I was there for 15. No ticket, no tow.

The occasion for which I broke out the car was to go meet a cat named Rocky. Until this evening Rocky lived with a guy who works on my floor and his family, but they got a new dog a while back that makes Rocky very nervous, and had decided the cat would be happier in another home, one with no dogs. I was forwarded an email to that effect yesterday afternoon, when I'd settled in just enough to start thinking seriously about acquiring a four-legged roommate.

Unfortunately Rocky, like most cats, does not like being transported. She (yes, Rocky is a she) meowed all the way home, and although I miraculously avoided getting lost on the trip, I seemed to hit every red light. She meowed as I walked a block to my building and down the long hallway to the elevator and into my apartment. When I put the cat carrier down in the walk-in closet and opened the door, she still stayed there meowing for half a minute or so. She was traumatized.

I closed the door of the closet, thinking it might be easier for her to get used to one room at first before exploring the apartment, and also not wanting her to escape when I opened the door. I went back down to the car to get the kitty litter donated by her former owner, and when I came back I found Rocky wedged into the corner of the closet as far as she could go. She meowed piteously, but I really didn't know what I could do for her; it was one of the saddest things I'd ever seen. So I took this picture. Then I decided to put a box in front of her to see if that helped her agoraphobia, and in fact she did stop meowing, though she's still got her nose in the corner. Poor thing.