Not a dog. Not some wild animal. Not a hungry or threatened reptile. Not a stinging or biting insect. Not an aggressive rodent.
I was attacked by a HOUSE CAT!
In a freaking brewery!
Depending on the individual city / local ordinances, many of the Denver-area breweries advertise that they are "dog friendly" ... ie ... as long as your dog is well-behaved, you can bring your dog.
I've never seen a brewery communicate in any way that pet cats are welcome.
But ... when we packed up a lunch, went on a short hike, and visited ...
V is for LiVing the Dream Brewing Company
... I saw my first cat at a local brewery.
We started out with a flight of beers, and found a seat to enjoy our beers and start eating our lunch.
After we finished the first flight, I went back up to the bar to order our second one.
There was a lady ahead of me holding a leash, and at the end of the leash was a cat. A CAT!
I think maybe the cat sensed that I judged its owner for putting a CAT on a leash and bringing it out to a brewery.
But ... the owner had to wait for one of the beers she ordered, so I stepped up to the bar and ordered my beer.
Not very long at all after I stepped up to the bar, I felt this little cat scratching at my calf. Luckily, I was wearing jeans, and it was a wasn't quite full-grown so I didn't get the full claws in my lower leg.
The owner told her cat, "that's not yours" and pulled it back. I laughed and smiled. It was sort of cute.
I returned my attention to the bar tender getting my flight ready.
I think the cat owner started looking at her phone.
Maybe a minute or two later, I felt a THUNK on my back along with claws holding onto the back of my shirt.
This time, the claws did dig a little into my skin, and I yelled something like "Ow, ow, OW!"
After a second or two the cat owner was (finally) pulling the cat off my back, apologizing. "I'm so sorry".
Honestly, maybe it was the shock, but she didn't sound quite as sorry as I thought she should. I gave her a dirty look. If looks could kill, the cat would probably be dead now.
Luckily my looks can't kill. I would have felt guilty.
I did tell the lady, something like "you should probably keep it away from me now".
Had I seen the lady as we left, after calming down, I probably would have apologized for over-reacting but honestly in the moment, I wanted to hurt the cat, and I was legitimately pissed at the lady.
When I returned to the table and told my wife, her main comment was "... and she didn't even offer to buy you a beer?"
Now, and even 5 or 10 minutes later it was much more amusing. One of the other patrons in the tap room and I even laughed about it when I was back up at the bar.
Even so, I'm against people bringing cats to breweries. Next time I see a cat on a leash, especially if it is at a brewery, I'm going to silently judge the owner. And ... I'm going to actively avoid the damn cat.
And ... so now that we've visited Living the Dream, we are up to the letter "W".
There are actually a couple of "W" breweries on the Colorado Brewery Map & List that we can use as "W" breweries.
Stay tuned on Sheppy's Blog: A to Z, and you can see which one we pick.
As always keep watching the regular SheppyBrew Channels to see what is happening with my BBQ, Beer, Biking: SheppyBrew's Facebook Page; Sheppy's Twitter Feed; SheppyBrew's Instagram Page; and SheppyBrew's Website.Of course, don't forget to visit this blog often as well!
