Clothes shopping

It had to be done - not for me but for the Senior Cat.
Now I love the Senior Cat. It is only because I love him that I can even contemplate the problem of going shopping for his clothes. I hate, loathe and detest clothes shopping for myself and it is every bit as bad going clothes shopping for him.
There is no realistic chance of getting  him to do it for himself. Even if he could get to a shop by himself - and he can no longer do that - then he would have no idea what to get. My mother bought most of his clothes. When we grew old enough we stopped my mother buying things we knew (not merely thought but knew) he would not wear.
Now I know that anything new I buy may not get "worn out". The Senior Cat tends to keep clothes long past their "use by even in the garden" date. 
He was going out with Middle Cat yesterday. It wasn't a very "dress up" sort of occasion but he did need to look tidy. 
    "I need some new cotton trousers," he told me.
    "I know," I said and also knew I had been putting off the evil moment when I would need to go shopping.
But then I thought to myself, "The Senior Cat is going out with Middle Cat. I don't have to think about lunch. I have done the maintenance housekeeping. I can knit on the train there and back and get the day's quota done so..."
    "I'll see if I can get you something today," I told him.  I measured him to be certain of the size.
They left. I went and caught a train. I went to the most likely shop in the city. I hunted through the menswear section. An older woman in a wheelchair was doing the same. I reached up for a couple of items for her. We commiserated about male clothes shopping. Another woman was shopping with a blind man. They were feeling fabrics and discarding them.
   "I want cotton if you can find it. It's cooler."
   "There's cotton here," I said, "But I want something that shape."
We huddled together and examined more clothes.
   "Here."
   "And what about this one."
   "This one is the colour of beach sand."
I bought a pair of trousers. I also went into the bookshop and spent the book voucher the Senior Cat was given by the Black Cat last Christmas. It hadn't occurred to her that he had no way of getting into that particular shop. Fortunately they had the book he thought he wanted. I might have lingered there but I really wanted to be out of the city. 
I missed one train. I caught the next train. It was raining by the time I started to pedal home from the station. Ugh. I managed less knitting than I hoped.
But, the trousers fit. I am thankful for that. They are too long but I expected that. But, they fit. I don't need to go and exchange them.
I'd love to think that one day I might need to go and buy yet another pair because the Senior Cat has worn this pair to shreds.