Some years ago now, more than twenty, I had a cat. You see, one Saturday afternoon I was entering choir rehearsal and one of the sopranos rushed in saying there was a strange unknown sound coming from her car and she was a bit worried. She had driven the car earlier in the day and heard nothing. Several of us bombarded her with questions to determine the cause. An alto, a tenor and me followed her back outside to have a listen and offer assistance. I'm and alto if you're wondering. Sure enough, we all heard it. Meow, meow, meow. Now I could add a forth meow but then it would sound like the song in that one commercial and you'd start singing that song in your head. You might still do that at some point...which is okay too. Anyway, it sounded as though a feline was in her car, but we could not see a thing. The tenor proceeded to get on the ground and see if he could see anything under the car. Nothing. Meow, meow, meow. We all heard it, clear as the beautiful, crisp fall day that it was. It became obvious to us all that there was a cat in the car somewhere. But where? And then, how to get it out? The other alto suggested getting a box and someone else, the tenor maybe, suggested a stick. Within a few minutes we proceeded to poke around the wheel wells of the car. Out she popped! A beautiful long-haired black cat with piercing clear blue eyes. She was not very large, but seemed to be older than a kitten. We coaxed her into the box even though she seemed a bit scared (obviously). She must have been cold, and I don't know why she didn't run away from us. My friend, the other alto, had a towel in her car, so she got it and we put that in the box with her.
Now came the job of what to do with her. I said I'd like to keep her. I had never had a pet of any kind before, so I had no idea what to do. However, my friend knew what to do as she had two tabby marked cats of her own. At this point you may be wondering what happened to choir rehearsal (or maybe you're not). Well, we all eventually went back inside the church and sang our little hearts out. After rehearsal, the other alto and I proceeded to shop for a few necessities to get me started.
With that out of the way, we wondered who she belonged to and what to name her while we sorted things out. The soprano had no pets and did not know of any neighbor who had a cat or who was missing a cat. She lived about nine miles from the church so our little friend had traveled a bit and was certainly out of her area wherever that had been.
Mercedes. That's it! Mercedes. The soprano was driving a Mercedes. Since the cat came from the car... There's the name for her. Mercedes. Mercedes the cat.
