The following is based on a true story.  Some characters & events have been adjusted for dramatic effect & also because I have forgotten some of the details.

It was a day like any other.  It would end that way too.  Or so I thought.  Little did I know that my life would be changed forever because of the events of this day.  And I’m not the only one.

We were in a youth staff meeting.  Myself, Ellie & Abbie. Sitting in my office, having some very important conversations (or something like that).  Then, my phone rings.  I ignore it.  Besides, it’s not my day to be on call, so if it’s an emergency or a walk in, it’s not on me.  We continue on with our very important meeting & conversation.  The phone rings again.  Assuming there may indeed be walk in, our team immediately goes to the Lord in prayer…mainly that whoever is on call would show up & take care of it.

I believe the Lord hears our prayers, but on this day, my friends…He must have had other plans.  The next thing I know, the face of our front desk volunteer peers into the rectangle window of my office door.  My heart…sinks.  My number had been drawn.

The door opens & the volunteer walks in. “Um…Brett.  I’m sorry to bother you in a meeting.  I know you’re not on call, but I can’t get ahold of anyone else & there’s someone up front & they need help.”

“Okay,” I said, assuming it would be a normal walk in situation.  As I am getting up from my desk, I hear the 7 words that will change my life.  Forever.

“um…just a heads up, she has a cat,” she said with confusion in her voice, fully understanding the absurdity in the sentence she’d just formed.

My eyes double in size & confusion fills my heart as I look at my dear friends.  As they gaze back at me, there was a mix of emotions in their eyes: part concern, part relief that they were not called & part anticipation because they knows that something spectacular is about to occur.

I head toward the front of the office.  It was the longest that walk had ever felt before.  I turn the corner before walking into our lobby and…there it is.

A homeless woman.

In pajamas.

Holding.

A.

Cat.

No…not a cat…a kitten.  A kitten that MUST have been less than a week old.  But that’s not all…

She's bawling. I was not prepared for this. 

Too add to confusion of the moment, I look down & make eye contact with the cat.  With every fiber of my strength, I try not to look as repulsed as I feel as I gaze at this kitten.  Kittens are cute.  But this is the ugliest kitten I had ever seen.  A couple of sentences ago, I mentioned that I made eye contact with the cat.  Little did you know that I mean the singular version of “eye”, not plural.  I did not make ‘eyes’ contact because one of these kitten’s eyes was gazing right back at me.  The other?  Well, the other must have been checking out what kind of shoes I was wearing.

Whilst completely taken aback & clouded in confusion, I manage to utter out, “Hi, my name is Brett.  What can I do for you?”

I’m not even going to pretend to remember what she had said, word for word.  The cliff notes version was that she was homeless & she had woken up that morning with a cat in her tent.  She was convinced that someone had dropped off this poor kitten while she was sleeping & then left.  

Basically, someone reverse kidnapped this kitten.  And here I was, the Liam Neeson character in her reverse Taken’d drama.  But I do not have a very particular set of skills for this situation.

As the nearly incoherent words continued to escape her wall of tears, her noble request had finally become clear.  She just needed help.  It was sweet really.  She understood that she didn’t have the means to take care of this kitten that she just found (and somehow has a motherly love for) and she needed help.

Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, finally coming to grips with circumstances I was now entrenched in, I began to troubleshoot with her, almost empathizing with her desire to help this kitten…this googly-eyed kitten.

After 3 or 4 pretty good ideas (if I must say so myself), something became clear…

This woman was not leaving with the cat.

She was going to continue to sit in our office lobby, in complete hysterics, unable to move on with life until this cat was out of her hands (both literally & physically).

Before I even recognized that I was the one saying it, I heard the words, “How about I just take the cat?”

Wait.  What?  I don’t want the cat.  What kind of witchcraft was this? That this woman could walk into our church and somehow reverse Liam Neeson Taken’d me with this kitten.

She was thrilled.  And genuinely grateful.  As she showers me with thank you’s & walks out the door from whence she came, I started to ponder…

“Did I just adopt a cat?  Wait…did the CHURCH just adopt a cat?  Maybe it can be like…a mascot or something?”

With the googly-eyed cat in hand, I walk back through the halls & into the doors of my office where Abbie & Ellie remain, highly anticipating my return.

“Soooo…” I say as they look at me with disbelief, “I took the cat.”

“What do you mean you took the cat?”

“I don’t know.  I’m not really sure.  It all happened so fast.  She was crying.  A lot.  She wasn’t going to leave unless I took the cat, so I took the cat.”

“It’s hideous,” one of them says, finally looking him in the eye (singular).

“I know, I've named it Googles.”

By now, word has spread through the entire church about me Liam Neesoning this reversed kidnapped kitten from the homeless lady.  Well, at least the whole office.  Well, at least those in the office who were present.

I was completely out of ideas on what to do with this kitten.  Luckily, Abbie, Ellie & Gretchen took over & within minutes, Googles had a home & a new family.  One where he would never  be reverse Taken’d from again.

I don’t work for Church at the Crossing anymore, but I have friends that do.  And they tell me that, on certain days, you can still hear the homeless woman in the lobby crying.