T4 -- Totally True Travel Tales || Then this feline hopped on the table

by Kara Cook

T4 Is an ongoing series of hard-to-believe but true encounters traveling to our signature At-Home closings. For more than 10 years we’ve been taking the closing anywhere that’s convenient for the client – literally anywhere. So, we have unintentionally amassed quite a few crazy stories that didn’t seem humorous at the time, but in hindsight, they certainly offer us a good bit of levity. Like they say, “you can’t make this stuff up!”

An animal lover, I’m always happy to be greeted by an excited pet at an At-Home closing. After a few scratches behind the ears, they typically let us get down to business without much interruption beyond a few peeks into my bag. Typically. Sometimes, however, we run into some very persistent pets. 

There was one particular closing in Dunwoody that stands out in my mind.  A statuesque, smiling woman -- we’ll call her Mrs. Smith – met me at the door with a cat close at her heels. Yes, a cat. Just like you’d expect a dog would follow. And. This. Cat. Never. Left. Me.

After warm greetings (with said cat swooshing and swirling about our legs), Mrs. Smith ushered me to the well-appointed dining room table where I oh-so-professionally arranged all the closing documents, neat and tidy and just so. Then this feline – we’ll call him Fred – hopped on the table. That was ok, I guess, but Fred immediately began pawing at all my neat piles. He wanted attention and clearly this table was his domain.

Mrs. Smith moved Fred one time, the first time. After that it became my responsibility to defend the documents and I will tell you, Fred was not to be deterred. He was going to be loved, closing or no closing. Over the course of the next 120 minutes, while Mrs. Smith examined every detail, dotted every I, and crossed every T, it was my responsibility to play defense against Fred’s insistent document kneading. Each time I removed a document from the stack, I had to lift his paw – he made a perfect oversized, yet unnecessary, paperweight.  I really tried my best to kindly entice this incredibly insistent creature elsewhere, but he was simply drawn to me and wanted my undivided attention. I moved him onto the floor beside me and he was back on the table in a flash. Reluctantly (I was wearing my favorite black dress – quite unfriendly to white fur), I put him on my lap.  But that, too, was unsatisfactory. He apparently needed to stare directly into my eyes and perched squarely on the documents was the only way to get this accomplished.   

Because of Fred, Mrs. Smith’s closing took twice as long as it should have … and I may or may not still have a stray piece of Fred fur on that black dress.