Pole-Dancing Cat

“You should carry it around with you, then you can do a little pole dance.”

Ahh…A kind customer’s suggestion for an improvement to my Halloween costume.

A few moments before, my well-meaning customer, came to me looking for a hook to get a workout top down from one of the face outs. (Face outs: metal bars protruding from the wall, where retailers put merchandise high up out of the average customers reach, to torment them, of course.)

First, she complimented me on my outfit saying that I looked “cute” and then proceeded to ask if I knew where the “pole that is used to get things down with” is, aka a hook. During the hunt for the elusive hook, slyly hidden on the opposite wall from the shirt she wanted down, came her good natured suggestion.

Ah the costume.

At my work, we are allowed to dress up for Halloween, as long as the costume does not interfere with our ability to do our job and as long as it is within dress code.
Check. Check.

Mine, consisted of an animal print dress with a six inch band of fur across the bottom. Faux fur, of course. It also had a layer of faux fur around the neck and attached to the back was a black tail. The dress wasn’t that short, but to prevent any situations arising, I added black leggings. Also in order to keep the outfit appropriate, I added a shrug to the top just in case people thought the cut of the shoulders was too revealing.

With black boots, and black gloves, I was almost all set. I painted on a nose and whiskers and made ears with silver pipe cleaners. For whatever reason, the outfit also included a blonde wig. As a brunette, I thought this could be kind of a fun experience, being blonde for a day.

I pinned the ears onto my blonde wig and I was set.

A blonde cat. It was Halloween, so it worked.

My co-workers got a kick out of the blonde wig, and the outfit in general. Most of the customers did as well. Plenty of “Oh my gosh! That is so cute!”’s were thrown my way. I was the only cat out of all the associated in the store, followed by a witch, a “shot in the dark”, and I’m assuming the other associate was a, putting it nicely, lady of the night. Though she was referred to, multiple times, as our bosses, “ho.”

Overall we were a pretty creative and eclectic bunch. The only other person that did not approve of the outfit was in fact not a person at all.


It was my tortoise shell cat, Kaci.

She happened to be in the front yard when I was on my way out. The look that cat gave me said it all.
“What is wrong with you?, What have you done?, and Why?,” were combined all into one, and followed swiftly by a disapproving “meow” and a shake of her little head.

With that she turned away and as if to prove that a real cat was the only cool cat, she gave me a sassy swish of her tail.

With that reaction, I guess I should have known better than to actually go out in public.