Bad Night!

Yesterday was a really good day...until around 9:00 p.m.!!  The kids and I had just left eating ice cream at church and I needed gas.  Chad practices swimming for his triathalon on Wednesday nights after church so he was at the pool with Tim and Josh and that left us by ourselves.  I usually go to Wal-Mart but I really just wanted to go home so I pulled into the Chevron near church.  Things started out normal...paying for gas, pumping it....then this guy's dog jumped into my open car door and sat right in Cana's lap.  Which was funny...but that's not the story.  The guy with the dog was with a group traveling somewhere and they were letting their dog out to walk.  He was a little "wild-eyed" whenever I talked with him about the dog so I wasn't too trusting of him.  He looked like he could be on something.  Remember this later in the story...Anyway I heard this yelping sound.  They heard it too, but didn't know where it was coming from.  I assumed they had some other kind of animal in their van with them.  I was about to crank my car when I heard them ALL shouting at me...."I think you have a cat in your engine!!"  Well, of course, I knew I wouldn't have a cat in my engine!  They told me to lift my hood...which scared me.  Again, I wasn't too trusting and I had visions of them doing something to my car while looking under the hood.  Then another guy said "You do...you DO have a cat in there...it's a little kitten!"  Well, I about died of anxiety!  We all stood around thinking about what we were going to do and then the guy volunteers to try and get her out through the bottom.  They told me again to come and try to see the kitten down near the engine and again...visions of them making me lean over into the car....pushing me into the engine, knocking me out, taking my kids...etc.  when through my head!  I know...crazy!  Anyway, one of them said it's orange and white.  Well, then I felt sick.  I thought maybe Mylie had ran out of our house while we were leaving for church.  Cana heard me tell them that we had a cat and started freaking out!  She was crying and couldn't stop until we found out if it was her or not.  So the guy reaches in through the bottom of my car and pulls out this little, tiny, kitten....thankfully not Mylie!  However, the kitten was in bad shape.  I can only figure that the kitten got in my car at church and rode in the engine down the road to the gas station.  I remember leaving church and cranking my car and hearing a THUMP sound.  I just thought maybe my car was messing up...but it was that poor kitten!  The kitten had been burned, most of its tail was gone and looked to have broken legs.  I felt so bad for it.  I know it is just a kitten, but I am very tender-hearted.  With Harley, Sasha, and even our goldfish at one time, Chad has always taken care of them when they were injured and died.  I never had to deal with it.  So I call him because I know he is nearby and... no answer.  I try several more times, but his phone is on silent.  So I called David and Shelia Reynolds because I knew they still might be at the church building.  They came over and helped me "deal".  David suggested I call the police department...which I had not even thought of doing.  I had no idea what to do with this injured kitten.  I called them and a police officer came out.  The traveling group had a water dish and poured water on the kitten to cool it down and tried to get it to drink.  So, now I am so thankful for the crazy "wild-eyed" guy because I didn't go all the way home with a kitten in my engine.  They were really nice and helpful and I think God knew I would need other people to handle the situation.  So the police officer got a box and took it with him.  I know this may be a minor incident to most people, but I just hate to see a hurt animal...and then to know that I did that to it...bothered me.  In that situation, I just didn't know what to do.  Thankfully, I had the traveling group and the Reynolds who helped me!!