A Tale of Two Kitties [Jojo]
Nov 1, 2020 16:12:31 GMT
Post by Jomei Jodai on Nov 1, 2020 16:12:31 GMT
Throughouthis half-audible rambling, Jomei hadn't actually looked down to see if the two cats were still there; he was too embarrassed over the whole refund stuff to have focus on anything other than "get out of there before you do something else dumb." It was why he hadn't noticed that the black cat had run off - and only looked down at the white cat when it started making strange noises.
What he saw horrified him: it was clutching its chest, shaking on the ground. "H-hey, what's wrong?!" he asked, kneeling down - hoping it could at least give him a hint to what the problem was. But it just kept shaking, ignoring him completely (as far as he could tell).
The possibilities were running through his head, his lacking knowledge of feline anatomy working against him: was it clutching onto its stomach, that one pawful of food he'd given so terrible that it was making it suffer? Did it have some rare disease that limited what kind of food it could eat, and he just triggered it? Was it clutching onto its heart, the taste of the probably-mediocre-compared-to-everything-else-it-ate food so awful that it was outright dying from it? Was it clutching its lungs, having some kind of allergic reaction that was making it hard to breathe and it was crying out for help?
His own heart beat fast and hard as he could only blame himself for whatever pain this cat was under. He had no idea what to do, how to fix his mistake.
It took him a second to look to the side and remember where they were. "I'll-I'll get help!" he shouted, his trembling legs carrying him back into the pet store. He just shouted to the first employee he saw (coincidentally, the same one he'd been dealing with earlier) that he needed help. It took a moment for him to get her help, and once he did, he brought her to the scene
of a not-indigestioning not-seizing not-choking white cat just standing there.
Jomei was left dumbstruck, still trembling. "B-But...it w-was just..."
"Honestly, I don't care if you were telling the truth or not: don't deal with strays. Especially when they're...whatever those are. I think you might be better off if I call animal control on ‘em"
"N-nno," he stammered out. "They're-they're not strays; they belong to someone."
"You sure about that? I'm not seeing any collar on this one, and I didn’t see one on the other."
He had to avert his eyes from her for just a moment - the implication of the last thing she said missing him completely. "Y-yeah." He didn’t actually have any proof for this assertion, other than his own confidence regarding their intelligence and not-feral behavior.
“Well, if you insist. Just stop wasting money on them; they aren’t even yours.”
Jomei didn’t respond, just looking down at the not-dying white cat, listening as the door closed behind him. “What was up with that?” he muttered to himself - not exactly at the cat. It didn’t even cross his mind that the cat was faking it, because why would it? So then what was happening? Why was it suddenly doing better?
It was then that he realized that only the white cat was there; he didn’t recognize the black one’s absence until he saw it return...with bags of chips in its mouth, dropping them right at his feet. “How...where did you get these?” he asked, kneeling down and looking at the bags, “...is this what kind of food you guys eat?” Why someone would feed their cats potato chips, he didn’t know - rich people could be weird. Could cats even survive off chips? But the strangest part was that all three were unopened.
The thought that it somehow got them out of the vending machine they passed by crossed his mind - but that would be silly. This cat was too big to just sneak in there and grab chips, and as smart as the cat was, there was no way it knew how to use a vending machine properly.
He let out a sigh - helped to relieve all that stress and confusion from the last few minutes. “Here, let me open these for you.” Probably why it brought those to him - paws weren’t great for opening things. It wouldn’t take him much effort, and couldn’t resist smiling at the scent of some decent food.
It had been some time since breakfast.
He laid two of the bags on the ground for the two cats to dig through, but kept one in his hands. “You two don’t mind if I have this one, do you? We can get back to looking for your owner after we eat.”
What he saw horrified him: it was clutching its chest, shaking on the ground. "H-hey, what's wrong?!" he asked, kneeling down - hoping it could at least give him a hint to what the problem was. But it just kept shaking, ignoring him completely (as far as he could tell).
The possibilities were running through his head, his lacking knowledge of feline anatomy working against him: was it clutching onto its stomach, that one pawful of food he'd given so terrible that it was making it suffer? Did it have some rare disease that limited what kind of food it could eat, and he just triggered it? Was it clutching onto its heart, the taste of the probably-mediocre-compared-to-everything-else-it-ate food so awful that it was outright dying from it? Was it clutching its lungs, having some kind of allergic reaction that was making it hard to breathe and it was crying out for help?
His own heart beat fast and hard as he could only blame himself for whatever pain this cat was under. He had no idea what to do, how to fix his mistake.
It took him a second to look to the side and remember where they were. "I'll-I'll get help!" he shouted, his trembling legs carrying him back into the pet store. He just shouted to the first employee he saw (coincidentally, the same one he'd been dealing with earlier) that he needed help. It took a moment for him to get her help, and once he did, he brought her to the scene
of a not-indigestioning not-seizing not-choking white cat just standing there.
Jomei was left dumbstruck, still trembling. "B-But...it w-was just..."
"Honestly, I don't care if you were telling the truth or not: don't deal with strays. Especially when they're...whatever those are. I think you might be better off if I call animal control on ‘em"
"N-nno," he stammered out. "They're-they're not strays; they belong to someone."
"You sure about that? I'm not seeing any collar on this one, and I didn’t see one on the other."
He had to avert his eyes from her for just a moment - the implication of the last thing she said missing him completely. "Y-yeah." He didn’t actually have any proof for this assertion, other than his own confidence regarding their intelligence and not-feral behavior.
“Well, if you insist. Just stop wasting money on them; they aren’t even yours.”
Jomei didn’t respond, just looking down at the not-dying white cat, listening as the door closed behind him. “What was up with that?” he muttered to himself - not exactly at the cat. It didn’t even cross his mind that the cat was faking it, because why would it? So then what was happening? Why was it suddenly doing better?
It was then that he realized that only the white cat was there; he didn’t recognize the black one’s absence until he saw it return...with bags of chips in its mouth, dropping them right at his feet. “How...where did you get these?” he asked, kneeling down and looking at the bags, “...is this what kind of food you guys eat?” Why someone would feed their cats potato chips, he didn’t know - rich people could be weird. Could cats even survive off chips? But the strangest part was that all three were unopened.
The thought that it somehow got them out of the vending machine they passed by crossed his mind - but that would be silly. This cat was too big to just sneak in there and grab chips, and as smart as the cat was, there was no way it knew how to use a vending machine properly.
He let out a sigh - helped to relieve all that stress and confusion from the last few minutes. “Here, let me open these for you.” Probably why it brought those to him - paws weren’t great for opening things. It wouldn’t take him much effort, and couldn’t resist smiling at the scent of some decent food.
It had been some time since breakfast.
He laid two of the bags on the ground for the two cats to dig through, but kept one in his hands. “You two don’t mind if I have this one, do you? We can get back to looking for your owner after we eat.”