Kittens

Ivy has literally been hopping from one foot to the other while I’ve been focusing on my upgrades, and it’s a very strange sight to see her doing so. It’s adorable though and she giggles with happiness the moment I’m ready to go. She grabs my hand and squeezes it gently. “Let’s go then, come on!” She urges and I chuckle. I raise my hand and we exit the barrier together.

Ivy guides me confidently through the streets of the inner west. She memorised the route beforehand and it’s not very far anyway. We arrive after only a fifteen minute walk, and I find myself standing outside a shelter. I look at Ivy who smiles at me. “Adopt don’t shop hun.” “You’ve really done a lot of research.” I comment, amused.

“Of course I have. Don’t pretend like you haven’t either over the last year, I’m in your head you brat, I know how much you want a pet cat.” She giggles. “Not the point.” I banter. “Come on, let’s go!” She says, pulling me inside gently. She pushes open the door eagerly and we head inside. Ivy strolls up to the receptionist, who looks up at her.

“Hi, we’d like to adopt two cats please.” Ivy says. The receptionists’ eyes light up. “Okay cool! We normally only get people looking for one! Follow me, and you can see if there are any you like.” She says, standing up and opening a door to a larger room. We follow her through the door and inside there are rows of cages, some containing dogs and others housing cats.

A cacophony of meows and barks overlap into one another as the animals notice our presence and react to it enthusiastically. Some of the sounds are frightened, others indicate excitement at new people being around. Looking around at all of them, my heart breaks. Each of these animals is without an owner, and each of them deserve one.

They all deserve all the love and care in the world and it makes me really sad to think about how they aren’t getting it. I can feel that Ivy is having similar thoughts and I squeeze her hand gently. She looks at me and smiles sadly. We both know that even taking two is a stretch, since neither of us have ever cared for pets ourselves before. We can’t take more than two though.

An excited grey pit bull barks at us as its tail wags. A large fluffy white Maine Coon meows loudly from a cage above us. A tiny chihuahua growls at us and scratches at its cage, and a golden retriever sits silently, staring at us with a keen interest. As we look through the cats, we see a variety of colours, and more breeds than I know the names of.

Most of the cats are staring at us in a pretty disinterested looking way, mewing occasionally at the woman guiding us through the room. One particular cage catches my eye, and Ivy spots it a second later. Instead of just one cat, there are two in this cage, both kittens. One of them is mixture of a light orange and white, and the other is grey on top and white underneath.

The orange kitten doesn’t seem to have noticed that we’re here. It’s happily jumping around its’ cage, bouncing almost like a bunny would. The grey kitten is laying in the back corner of the cage, clutching its tail and shaking slightly as it looks out at us. The orange kitten notices the reaction of the grey one, looks to us and starts hissing protectively. The receptionist smiles at us as we observe the two kittens.

“Inseparable they are. We tried to put them in separate cages but neither of them would calm down until we let them stay together. They were found out on the street sleeping under a parked car. The orange one is very protective of her sister.” She says. “Are they both girls?” I ask. The receptionist nods.

“Do they have names?” Ivy asks her. She shakes her head. “If you adopt these ones, you can name them yourselves. They can’t be more than a month or two old, the poor things. They’re ragdolls too, in case you’re wondering.” The receptionist informs us. “Can we see how they like us?” I ask, knowing that Ivy is getting the same feeling I am.

“Sure.” She says, opening the cage and gently taking both of the kittens out. Ivy takes the orange one and I take the grey one. The orange one mews and hisses as the receptionist handles her. The aggression turns towards me as I hold her sister. We hold them close together, and the orange kitten sniffs her sister for a moment. She calms down, now electing to look warningly at me.

For her part, the little grey kitten is shaking even more intensely as I hold her gently in my arms. I stroke her fur a few times and gently coo to her. “Shh it’s okay, we aren’t going to hurt you.” The shaking calms slightly and she seems a little less anxious. I look at Ivy and she has a smile on her face. She nods slightly and I turn to the receptionist. “We’d like these two please.”

I fill out the paperwork required for the adoption while Ivy sits in the waiting room, cooing happily at our new kittens. The shelter also sold us a carrying cage to help us get them home safely. The paperwork doesn’t take very long and I pay the adoption fees quickly before walking back to Ivy. “Let’s get them home.” I tell her.

The walk home is peaceful, with Ivy happy to carry them. I could probably put them in my inventory but I really don’t feel like doing that. Something about it feels inhumane to living beings. “Have you thought of a name for yours?” I ask her. She shakes her head, smiling at me. “You’ve already thought of a name for both of them.”

“Sol and Luna. I think it works well.” I tell her, blushing slightly. “I think so too. It seems poetic.” She says. “We already have everything we need at home right?” Ivy nods. “I ordered it while we were getting furniture.” “Awesome. I really hope I can bond with Luna. Poor thing seems absolutely terrified.” I confess and my girlfriend giggles.

“Hopefully Sol doesn’t hate me.” She replies. “We just have to show them that they can trust us. Bonding is another matter but as long as we treat them well, take care of them properly, give them space when they want it and affection when they want it, I don’t think either of them will hate us.” I say. “Fingers crossed.”

We get home and inside the palace fairly quickly. Ivy sets the cage down in the living room and opens it, before we step back to give the kittens some space. After a few seconds, Sol pokes her head out and looks around a bit. Mia squeals and starts towards her. “Oh my god, she’s so cute!” I put an arm in front of her gently to hold her back.

“Give them some space, they’re quite nervous and we don’t want to intimidate them. Ivy, you remember that stuff about setting up a safe space for them?” I ask and she nods. “Let’s do that now.” We grab all the things that Ivy ordered for our new cats and quickly set up a little space for them in the corner of the living room.

It includes scratching posts, a magically refilling bowl of water, a self cleaning litter box, cat trees, toys, and a little bed and blankets for them. We place the cage next to their safe space and keep a distance for a few minutes, to give them a little space. Sol comes out first, looking around and testing whether everything is safe, before Luna joins her.

They drink some water and Luna curls up in the little bed we bought them, still trembling slightly. Sol watches over her while she sleeps, making sure that her sister is safe. “They’re so adorable.” I whisper to Ivy and she giggles happily. “I’m so glad we got them.” She responds and I kiss her on the cheek. “Me too.”

The next couple of hours are spent watching some tv, hanging out more casually with Paige and checking on our kittens to make sure they’re safe. It turns out that while we were away, Mia did in fact ask Paige if she wanted to spend the night. As a friend of course, and in one of the guest rooms. Mia giggles as she tells me how hard Paige blushed before the aeromancer clarified that part.

Paige accepted, and I find myself very much looking forward to spending more time with her. Both in a training sense because I’d love to see what she can do with her powers, and in a personal sense. Her being so flustered around the four of us is extremely endearing and I want to get to know her better.

That’s why we find ourselves watching Pirates Of The Caribbean while our cats settle in. Turns out that Mia and I are the only ones who have seen the movies, so we take a break from our long marathon of watching MCU movies to show Paige, Skylar and Ivy, one of the most iconic franchises of the 2000s. About halfway through, Mia gets up to start making dinner.

Usually Ivy would be doing that but right now, she refuses to leave the room our cats are in, which I fully understand. Ivy and I are snuggled up together on one of the couches, near enough to our cats to make sure we know they’re okay, but still far enough away to give them some space. Skylar and Mia were snuggling together, but since Mia left to make dinner, Skylar cuddles with us instead.

Paige is sitting by herself, looking slightly awkward but also very much like she wants to join in on the snuggling. None of us want to push her since we don’t really know her and since she doesn’t say a word, it doesn’t get brought up. But I can see the desire in her face. I wouldn’t have been sure how to interpret it a month ago, but it’s clear as day to me now.