Carina
— Shop Mistress
— 12th Level Thief
 Do
not let this little creature's grace and air of dignity beguile you.
Sure, she looks like a sweetheart, acts like a sweetheart and everyone
believes she's a sweetheart... and that's all great except for one
thing... she isn't stealing from them!
A few months ago (fall 2006) there were a lot of stray cats wandering around
my workplace. My co-workers and I spent several hours over several
days gathering them up and dividing them up amongst ourselves to take home
and care for. I thought that Wermacht might like having a companion.
Unfortunately, I work with a whole lot of females who had secretly allocated
every kitty and I wasn't going to get one unless I wanted to take on the
whole pack of them (co-workers, not kitties).
As it turned out, after we thought we had them all, Carina came out of
hiding — presumably her curiosity got the
better of her and she wanted to know what was going on with all her companions.
 So I sat outside with a yummy turkey sandwich and eventually captured her
when her stomach caused a lapse in reasoning ability and she ventured too
close to me.
When my workday was over I took her immediately to the vet to have her
checked out, get her shots, etc. At the end of the appointment (when I
now owed the vet $$$) they scanned her and found she had an onboard chip.
So I called her owner and was told I could keep her. And that's how
this kitty ended up in my home.
Her and Wermacht try to pretend
like they're oblivious to each other, but I often catch them snuggled up.
Notice how she curled up with Wermacht and is now gently attempting to
snap his neck.
Awww... isn't that sweet.... Well, sure, and that's what I wanted for him
(the snuggle part, not the breaking his spine part).
Unfortunately, this
little fur ball keeps stealing all my stuff. I've already lost two
pairs of tweezers and several pieces of hardware from my shop. In
fact, she is banned from the shop and I keep a squirt bottle on the end of
my bench nearest the door so I can soak her just for thinking about coming
in.
 But if I leave the shop and forget to close the door I pay the price.
Last night for example, I was working on my Sig Wonder. On the bench
were the wing bolts, wing dowels, canopy, wing and fuselage. When I
came back to the shop the only things left on the bench were the wing and
fuselage. I found the canopy, both bolts and one dowel. I have
no idea where she's stashing everything.
That doesn't even count all the times I've busted her trying to steal my
watch, lighter, flash drive, other pairs of tweezers and lots of other
stuff.
My buddy Mike says she's building a model airplane someplace. I have to agree with him because now after having
her for over a year there's much more stuff missing than I mentioned in this article already and most of it is small
parts and tools used in my shop.
Also see
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