They’re not that kind.”
“Cats are cats, ain’t they?”
“Not exactly.
Some are big and some are little.
Mine are big.
I don’t think a pet farm would do very well with that lion we’ve got.
Or the tigers.
Or the puma.
Or the three jaguars.
They’re the worst.
A jaguar is an awful cat.”
“Holy smoke. What do you do with those things?”
“Oh, work them in movies.
Sell the cubs.
People have private zoos.
Keep them around.
They draw trade.”
“They wouldn’t draw my trade.”
“We’ve got a restaurant.
People look at them.”
“Restaurant, hey.
That’s what I’ve got.
Whole goddam country lives selling hot dogs to each other.”
“Well, anyway, I couldn’t walk out on my cats.
They’ve got to eat.”
“The hell we can’t.
We’ll call up Goebel and tell him to come get them.
He’ll board the whole bunch while we’re gone for a hundred bucks.”
“Is it worth a hundred bucks to you to take a trip with me?”
“It’s worth exactly a hundred bucks.”
“Oh my.
I can’t say no to that.
I guess you better call up Goebel.”
I dropped her off at her place, found a pay station, called up Goebel, went back home, and closed up.
Then I went back after her.
It was about dark.
Goebel had sent a truck over, and I met it coming back, full of stripes and spots.
I parked about a hundred yards down the road, and in a minute she showed up with a little grip, and I helped her in, and we started off.
“You like it?”
“I love it.”
We went down to Caliente, and next day we kept on down the line to Ensenada, a little Mexican town about seventy miles down the coast.
We went to a little hotel there, and spent three or four days.
It was pretty nice.
Ensenada is all Mex, and you feel like you left the U. S. A. a million miles away.
Our room had a little balcony in front of it, and in the afternoon we would just lay out there, look at the sea, and let the time go by.
“Cats, hey.
What do you do, train them?”
“Not the stuff we’ve got.
They’re no good.
All but the tigers are outlaws.