A Tale of Two Kitties

It all started innocently enough with the purchase of swimsuits…..

The kids dove back in to swimming lessons a little over a week ago now. After 12 weeks of lessons and a summer of backyard/lake/hot spring use their current suits were pretty much shot. Not to mention, both kids have done some growing since the suits were purchased back in January. That meant about a week before lessons started I went online to Target.com to purchase new suits. At the same time I also thought I’d pick up a birthday gift for my soon to be 4-year old nephew. Kill two birds with one stone AND get free shipping? Doesn’t get much better than that.

I’d been waffling around on what to get my nephew. Generally, he likes whatever big brother likes (and who has a birthday 10 days after little brother) pirates, superheroes, etc. but I didn’t want to just get two of the same thing. I wanted something that uniquely Noah. What to get, what to get? I’d actually be struggling with it for weeks. Emilie to the Rescue!

Emilie had come into the office and crawled up on my lap during the swimsuit selection process (wanted to make sure Mom didn’t forget that suit with the large ruffley obnoxious purple tutu skirt ) and remained there as I looked at toys. Soon enough she pointed out Fur Real pets and started jabbering on about pretty kitties and baby puppies. Hmmmmmm, Noah LOVES stuffed animals. He’s got a real soft spot for them. Sleeps with about fifty-zillion every night and, trust me, he knows if one is missing. What could be better than a pseudo-stuffed animal that purrs and walks and drives his mother (my little sister) batty?? Perfect! I added a nice gray kitty named Bootsie to the cart, clicked ‘checkout’, verified my order, paid, and was off to better things back in the real world….awesome things, like laundry .

Fast forward a week. We are waiting the arrival of the swimsuits hoping they’ll arrive in time for lessons. I got two e-mails. One said the suits shipped the other said the cat shipped. Tuesday shortly before lessons started the UPS truck pulled up in my driveway and the UPS man climbed out of the vehicle carrying two rather large boxes. “Okay,” I thought “Apparently they don’t consider item size when they pack stuff at Target.com.” Then the UPS guy casually states, “I have a third box for you, but I can’t find it in the truck. I’ll go look again and bring it if I find it.” Uhhhh…..what??

I can’t think of anything else that I ordered, so unless a relative sent a box something is off. I went inside and opened the two boxes. First box, Fur Real kitty. Second box, Fur Real kitty….. I looked at the packing slips. Both were for Fur Real cats. Did I accidentally order two? Did they accidentally send me two cats instead of swimsuits? I went online and checked, nope only ordered one cat, which now showed as delivered. Swimsuits still showed as ‘out for delivery.’ My checking account was billed the proper amount for swimsuits and one Fur Real cat. There was actually no hint of a second cat anywhere.

At that point I sat down and looked at the packing slips and box labeling…. They were absolutely identical down to the tracking number. It was like someone hit print twice and sent me a duplicate cat without realizing it. I called Target’s customer service and explained what had happened. The guy didn’t seem to get it. He kept telling me to return the second cat for a refund. I tried taking it into the store too, but they also wanted to give me a refund. There is no record of the second cat and they can’t return it to inventory without reimbursing me for it. Considering I never paid for the darn thing that just feels like stealing….even more so than keeping the cat I never ordered in the first place.

So just like real cats are the “gift that keeps on giving” it seems robotic cats are too. My devious plan to earn Auntie brownie points while at the same time pick on my sister backfired and I too am stuck with one of these obnoxious meowing cats myself.

Emilie really wants it….. She carried the one  to give her cousin around for a week and actually packed her own overnight bag when I said we were mailing it to her cousin so that she could go too. However, the second cat still remains in it’s packaging in the back bedroom. Part of me wants to give in and give it to her….but I feel wrong about that since we didn’t pay for it. Another larger part of me says to donate this duplicate cat to Toys for Tots or Project Angel tree or something similar and give another child something to love on.  That would be a better lesson to teach my children. As for Emilie, if she still wants one come December there is always the chance ‘Santa Claus’ will bring her one…or three, with my luck. As long as it’s not a real kitten (and don’t any of you got getting ideas, we already have two cats ) I suppose I can persevere.