Cat Tales

We moved into this co-op in mid-December after having been on the waiting list for four years.  The weather was bone-chillingly cold.  I remember wearing my coat in our very drafty livingroom and having the flu over Christmas, but nothing stands out more in my memory than the phone call I received shortly after move in:

Hi, my name is ___.  I live across from you. I notice that you have two cats.

(She saw our indoor mother and daughter Siamese cats through our patio doors)

Yes, we have two cats.

Can you tell me how this happened?

We just moved in.

It must be the Office Co-ordinator's fault, right?

Nope, she had nothing to do with it.  We just MOVED in!

This is a one-pet co-op. You will have to write a letter to the Board of Directors telling them that you have two cats and wait for their decision.

OK, I'll do that.

I wrote the Board of Directors telling them about the phone call and the instructions given to me by the member who saw my cats through her kitchen window. 

A week or so later, the President of the co-op, who was driving by me, rolled down his window and told me to just ignore the whole thing, which I did.

Our co-op had a Welcoming Committee at that time.  We received a visit from them at a later date, but in the true spirit of co-operative living, we received our initiation the day we received that phone call.