If you have ever been to Ireland you know that there are only two types of weather: cold or cold and rainy. My family use to take a trip to Ireland every two years, we would visit my grandparents on my father's side. Though I loved my grandparents, my favorite part of the trip was when we went to Barley Cove.

The rain was falling heavy on the roof of our car, loud thumps hitting the metal of the rental car. It was a long drive, almost 3 hours from my grandparents house. I mostly looked out the window, everything was so green. My younger sister, Leta, sat next to me, she was clutching the stuffed dog my grandfather gave to her. He called it a horse when he gave it to her. In front of me my brothers, Niall and Ryan, yelled at each other as they battled pokemon on their Nintendo Gameboys. I laughed as Ryan threatened to rip out the cord that connected the devices. We only had two pokemon games so I was stuck with Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland, none of us liked Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland. The car was so loud, with the yelling, rain, and constant neighing from my sister and her stuffed dog, I have no clue how my parents could stay sane. My mother sat reading a book and my father kept his eyes on the road, squinting to see through the heavy sheets of rain. I looked back out the window and I saw the blue sea beyond the hills of green grass. We were almost there.

Now what you should know about Barley cove is that it is a quaint small town of sorts on hill, it was a walk away from a beautiful Irish beach, that was almost always empty because it was an Ireland beach. In the other direction of the field there was a rabbit field, where we dressed up and went rabbit hunting, and a cattle ranch, where my brother almost died cow tipping. The town was very small, it had a bar where kids would go to buy Kit Kats and Black Rain, a strange blackberry drink, a general store, which is like a tiny grocery store, and many small cottages that people lived in. Near these cottages was a playground that we never used and a slide built into a hill that must have been twenty five feet tall, but felt like a million. We use to rent a cottage but this year we decided to rent an apartment from the new complex that had just been built. Now this was no city apartment building, it was two stories tall and had four apartments in it. 
When we pulled into the driveway the rain was falling hard, we rushed to bring our luggage into our apartment. As we ran back and forth between the car and the apartment I noticed my sister had disappeared, I looked around when I saw something I had not seen before there was an area off the driveway, a gap in the wall about 3 feet across, inside there was a small tree and a patch of mud, the area was overgrown and stunning at the same time. I saw my sister squating on the ground. I walked over to her to see that she was petting a small cat. The cat was more of a kitten than a cat, it had black fur going down its back, a white as snow stomach, and on it’s forehead was a small white diamond shape. The kitten was dry under the canopy of the small tree that grew in the small crevasse. My sister noticed me as a walked towards her, she told me to come pet the kitten. Before I reached the kitten a large mother cat walked into view, she meowed and her kitten ran to her, many other kittens were around the mother and she seemed to not mind that we were there. My mother called to us from our apartment and we rushed inside. I guess neither mother wanted her children in the rain.

When we got in Leta and I rushed to go tell our brothers about the cats that lived in the grotto. All together we decided that we would catch the cats so we could take them home with us. The next morning after we woke up, and ate a big bowl of Lucky Charms, we rushed out to the gap in the fence. As expected waiting for us were the cats. Niall decided we should name the cats, so we each took turns naming them. Leta went first and named the small one with the diamond Lucky, I named an all black cat Midnight, Ryan named one that looked like it was wearing little shoes Boots, Niall named the mother Big Momma, this went on till all 6 cats were named. The names were Big Momma and her kittens Lucky, Midnight, Boots, Spot, and Bolt. After we had named our cats we decided to plan how we would capture them. We decided that the best option would be to take out Bolt first, he was a slower cat that was very up close and personal, definitely the easiest catch. Now my family watched a lot of cartoons and off course the first trap we think of is the good old box propped up with a stick trick. We thought we were so clever, but not a single cat came near our box, so we decided to use bait. We rushed inside and grabbed a handful of Lucky Charms, we loved the stuff so why wouldn’t the cats. They didn’t love it. So we decided a new trap would be needed, after a long debate we decided a pit trap was the next best option. We began to look around for shovels, as I snooped through the storage of the apartment my mother noticed my strange behavior. She walked up to me and asked what I was doing. Should I ask her for a shovel, because there is no way she would give me one I thought to myself. I told her we wanted to catch cats in a pit trap, she told me “there were enough damn holes in Ireland, thanks to all the rabbits, we didn't need to be digging anymore!”, I sadly agreed and went to tell my siblings the pit trap was a no go. After that Niall and Leta said there were no more good traps to use and gave up. Ryan on the other hand had one more “fantastic” idea.

Now the wall that surrounded the cat’s garden was about a foot thick and six feet tall. Ryan’s plan was rather simple, I would climb up the wall and sit at the edge of the garden. Then he would throw me up a box, the one we used for the first trap. I would then drop the box down from the wall onto an unexpecting kitten, and Ryan who was hiding in the brush would then run and hold down the box so that the cat wouldn’t get away. Now this plan seemed like a good idea because we were both very young. So I climbed up the wall and balanced myself, Ryan then threw the box to me. Everything was going according to plan, so all that was left to do was wait. We sat in our positions, but no cats appeared, we waited about an hour till suddenly a small meow came from beneath the tree. It was Lucky, he walked around and began to approach the wall where I perched.

I dropped the box.

Ryan ran from the bushes and pressed his hands down onto the box. We had done it, we caught a cat! Ryan yelled to me to get down and hold the box so he could get the others. I leaped from the wall and held down the box. I could feel the cat squirming within its prison. Ryan ran into the apartment. Lucky’s attack on the box grew stronger. Now if you have ever trapped a smaller animal you will notice that it gains an unexpected super strength called adrenaline. Lucky’s adrenaline was really pumping down in that box as he tried to escape. Then there was an eerie silence that seemed to last forever.

Suddenly the force of a thousand kittens came from under the box.

Lucky had escaped and I had failed my siblings they arrived to me kneeling on the ground with an empty box in front of me. The first reaction was anger, Ryan yelled and yelled till he realized what had happened. Ryan then began to mock me about how a tiny kitten had overpowered me and escaped and in only a minutes time. Leta and Niall began to chime in and I became red in the face. I thought the taunting would never end, but then out of nowhere came Lucky! He walked right up to me and curled up on my lap. Astonished we didn’t know what to do, I had caught the cat. I picked up little Lucky and gave him a kiss on his sweet little forehead. My siblings and I decided that we probably couldn’t keep the cats so I placed Lucky back on the ground and we proceeded to play with all the cats.

We were sad as we left, we said goodbye to the cats with teary eyes and filed into the car. Another loud car trip I thought, but then I realised that dealing with my siblings is herding cats, sometimes the best way to do it is by doing nothing at all.