Ben Sampkins had a large
retail flooring establishment that was not located in a shopping centre but
hidden away in an area of factories. Somehow, this attracted lots of customers and
he was placing orders quite frequently with my company, making him a much
valued customer. Of course, I made sure that he had the latest samples to sell
from and installed an attractive display stand in his showroom. It was made of
tubular steel with large, horizontal, selector pages for easy flipping through.
Housewives and decorators alike loved to stand there and leaf through its attractive
range of vinyl flooring patterns.
Arriving there, I noticed
a few cars parked right outside, which is always a good sign of business. There
was a very wide shop front and the interior reached a long way to the back to the
offices.
Stopping for a moment at
the entrance, I took in the picture of the whole layout of this attractive showroom. There were
big rolls of carpets, arranged in herringbone fashion and on the side walls
were suspended beautiful rugs,
On the floor were passageway
runners and over-locked carpet pieces. And sure enough there was a vinyl
flooring section far in the back, near the offices, where my company’s display
stand dominated the PVC flooring section.
From the ceiling were suspended
large signs, pictures of room settings and ‘Specials’ advertising, slightly swaying.
There was something else
that called my attention: a grey tabby cat that kept brushing up against my leg
in a friendly gesture of welcome. I patted the top of a large roll of carpet
and it understood immediately, jumping up onto the spot I indicated, waiting excitedly
to be stroked.
Naturally, since every
staff in the shop seemed busy, I felt unobserved and therefore tickled this
fluffy creature under the chin, behind the ears and stroked it vigorously,
whispering sweet nothings and looking into its beautiful trusting eyes. I have
never heard a cat purr so loudly; it licked my hand fast and with dedication –
obviously, this gorgeous creature loved to be loved and to give love!
Eventually I had to stop
and proceeded into the back of this gigantic showroom, where I found Ben in his
office. He was a middle-aged man with the youngish, ruddy complexion of a
country lad.
Sitting down, I
immediately directed our conversation to the subject of my visit. There were
new samples of flooring with especially developed low maintenance properties,
always an excellent selling feature which I had to make him acquainted with.
Together, with prices, technical literature and maintenance instructions, I
stacked everything neatly on his desk and then decided to pay him a compliment.
‘You have a lovely cat,
Ben! I’ve just played with it………’ But I didn’t get any further.
‘Oh, that bloody cat –
drives me mad!’ Was his unexpected outburst.
‘But – it’s a lovely
cat!’ I heard myself protest.
‘Well, you can have him.’
he acclaimed.
‘Why? Don’t you like
cats?’ I jumped to its defence.
‘That bloody cat’, he
repeated angrily, ‘gets on my nerves…..I’m gonna get rid of him. Hangs around,
costing me money, always wanting something………’
‘But it is a wonderful
creature, a loving companion, a kind of partner……’ I found myself representing
cats in general and that fluffy, furry creature I’d made friends with.
‘Take him with you! Go
on, take him I can’t stand the sight of him anymore.’ His face reddened even
more and his voice sounded very aggressive.
The arguments went back
and forth for a while. Realising how long I had been with him and that it is
never wise to upset a good customer, I stood up to bid my farewell. Trying to
hide my hurt feelings I left his office.
Once outside his room, I
found the cat was waiting for me. With its big amber eyes it looked so friendly
and its fuzzy face was so lovable and trusting, my heart sank. ‘You poor
creature’, I thought, if only somebody would love you’. Then it started to show
me the way to the entrance of the shop. Trotting ahead with its tail upright
and looking back from time to time, it led me through the gigantic showroom and
when we nearly reached the entrance, it jumped onto the same roll of carpet it
had sat on before and looked at me encouraging. Naturally, I too, remembered
what we had done before, so I stroked and tickled it and whispered again sweet
nonsense in its lovely ears. And it purred and licked my hand in rapture.
‘Hello Peter!’ One of
Ben’s salesmen walked past and I had a desperate thought.
‘Do you want a cat, John?’
He looked surprised and
taken aback.
‘Why would I want a cat?’
‘Ben wants to get rid of
this lovely thing here. It needs a home!’
John sounded irritated:
‘He’s had that cat for years…..it wandered in one day and they have been
together ever since.’
‘But he said he ….’
‘He never gets rid of
him. He only talks funny’, John said, walking away and leaving me so relieved
that I virtually floated out of this shop as if I’d gotten a very big order!
