Entertainment

The afternoon was sultry, even with the AC in the cubicle. Unanimous clicking sounds issued from all the computers, telephones rang off the hook and IMs pinged. Today was the client visit day for our project so everyone was dressed extra sharp and looked extra busy.

The door opened and four tall, severe looking blonde men walked in, led by our manager. They cast us all a bored glance and moved on.

Whew! I breathed a sigh of relief, and sank lower into my chair, glad that it was over uneventfully.

Just then, I heard a soft mewing sound. Assuming that I had probably imagined it, I ignored it. Then it came again! A little louder, a little clearer. It was definitely a ‘meow’. The girl in the next cubicle squealed and jabbed her finger towards the space below my desk.

There, nestled amidst all my paperwork and taxes, sat one mother cat, with her two kittens. Unbelievable! How in the world did she ever get in? All our doors were electronically activated, so unless she wore an ID card, there was no way she could’ve gotten in.

By now, sufficient heads were turned in my direction. People began leaving their work stations and trotted towards my desk. I was petrified about what my manager would say, today being ‘Client Visit Day’ of all days. But to my amusement, one of the tall, severe men, picked up a kitten and began petting him!

That was what everyone was waiting for. A whole throng of people descended on my work station and began picking up and pampering the cats. My manager was thrilled that the clients were enjoying themselves here. Out of nowhere, came a saucer of milk, which the three of them lapped up in a jiffy (all over my taxes). Once fed, they were in a mood for fun and games and I don’t mean just the cats! This was the perfect release for the pent up tension in our demanding project and people began acting as silly as the little kittens.

One of the kittens was determinedly gnawing at the main power cord! I yanked him away immediately. 220 volts at 50 Hz. frequency could fry his whiskers. But what did he know? He’s a cat!

Soon, there was a long line of people from other projects who had come to see these mystery visitors. News like this spreads fast in my company, and the cats were enjoying the adoration and fond glances of the whole third floor. Someone brought a discarded CPU cabinet, stuffed it with paper from the shredder and placed the cats in it. Happy in their new home, they purred in contentment.

In no time at all, we had people who were willing to adopt the animals. The Animal Volunteer groups came charging in and set up a bidding booth for the kittens. Bids poured in from all people, including our foreign clients. Soon, each kitten was being sold for a thousand bucks!!! A little stray kitten, which the very same people who were bidding, would shoo out of their homes and kitchens, was going for one grand odd! The mother cat sure picked the best day to walk into our company.

But who would get the money after the sale?

“The company of course.” A voice in the crowed said. We all turned around to see who it was.

“According to clause xyz of code blah blah, all proceeds of any monitory activities with regard to company assets, which have a blanket cover over all fund raising, sales and charities has to be routed through the company – ”

“Wait a minute!” I interrupted the monologue of the member of the finance team. “They’re just cats!”

“Where were these cats found?” He asked me in a lofty voice.

“Under my desk.”

“Are they yours?”

“No.”

“Then they were on company premises. They become company cats.”

Company cats! Ridiculous! I bet the cat would bolt from here if she knew she was being sneakily recruited into this enterprise.

The Animal volunteer groups would not take this lying down. After all, they had invested so much time and effort; they had to see some of the profits. Our clients were starting to get a little irked with all the bureaucratic red-taping. So, our leadership team got into a heated discussion about it being client property since they were found in our project, which was, after all, funded by our clients. They were client cats. Then the H.R team sailed in and unfurled presentation after presentation about how they were joint assets and how we owned 51% shares in them and how we could divide them between the clients and the company. The mother would go to the company (since she had product manufacturing potential) and the two kittens could go to the client (since they would grow in future to be production firms).

In all the noise and commotion, I retreated to my desk to continue work. I had had enough of this joke. As I started typing furiously, I heard the sounds of mewing again. This time it was coming from my back pack. I peered in to see the three of them cuddled up against my laptop cable. (The curious one was gnawing on the power cord again!) Apparently, the mother cat had decided that she didn’t want her kittens being outsourced, and sneaked them back inside. Quietly, I zipped up my bag and tip-toed past the crowed of people involved in the argument.

They didn’t even realize that the cats were no longer under their noses.