Plans That Go Awry

I had all sorts of optimistic ideas for today.

The timeline was supposed to go something like this:

5:30pm: bike to home gym from work
6:00pm: try out new core conditioning class at gym
8:00pm: home for a tempeh dinner, with BF watching Biggest Loser
10:00pm: first time ever attempt at Tabata (thanks South Beach Steve!)
11:00pm: bed

Wake up tomorrow and do it all over again (with a different tv show).

But guess what? None of that happened as planned.
What derailed me, you ask?

One of these little guys.

As I prepared to enter the gym I saw an orange-marmalade cat shoot out of the nearby condo, helped along by an unfriendly doorman. I guess the cat thought he lived there -- or maybe he did at one time.

He zipped around the corner and hung out on the street, meowing piteously at everyone walking by. I got him some food from the nearby deli and went to feed him. He let me pet him and sat happily at my feet. Clearly he's not a street cat.

Likely someone chucked him out because he got too big. He wasn't neutered either.

Long story short, I stayed with him on the corner, out in the freezing cold, for far too long. Eventually a friend of mine came who does cat rescue. We made a couple of attempts to grab him and get him in a carrier.

He was smart and fast. We got him in once but then couldn't get the door shut fast enough.

It fell to me to snag him while my friend held the carrier.

He took off for good after the second failed snatch. I hope I didn't hurt him. He got in a couple of good whacks at me.

I got home around 9:30, starved, freezing, and nursing several angry red scratches.

The worst of it is he's still out there. And I didn't get in my gym workout today. Damn it!

But there's always tomorrow.