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Furnado Animal Shelter, Tuesday

It had begun, just like the vet staff had warned Zack it would. People coming in and looking for cute animals, preferably the small, baby sort, not for themselves, but for loved ones. And now Zack was spending his day actively talking people out of bringing surprise pets home.

"Look," he said, "I know everyone loves kittens, but did you consider whether your boyfriend wants to clean a litterbox for the rest of Miss Tizzywhisker's life?"

"You met her yesterday? How do you know she even likes dogs?!"

"Yeah, they are a regular here. They keep birds, because they're allergic to cats. Like, deathly allergic. We have to bring their birdseed out to them and take payment at the door."

"... No. No we are not going to just make you a bouquet of bunnies. Maybe try stuffed toys and the flower shop instead."

"Please for the love of Ifrit and Shiva tell me that this hamster is for you."

"LOOK, I'VE HAD JUST ABOUT-- Oh. Oh, yeah, sure we carry that brand. Sorry. Uh. I'll throw in another bag for free today. Sorry about that."

It was going well, sure.

[OOC: Open!]

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Seivarden didn't need a pet. She just wanted to chat, having spent most of the weekend binge watching new Radchaai entertainments. Overhearing Zack's last phonecall, she smirked. When he had hung Up she said: "I have to agree that pets make bad gifts."

Zack let out a ragged, somewhat frazzled breath, and then ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to calm himself down.

"There's no talking sense into some people," he muttered, waving his other hand around a little. "I mean, it's a sweet gesture, if you do it right. But you can't just dump a living thing into somebody's lap with no warning and expect them to accept that responsibility."

"The flower arrangements I make are less of a responsibility," Seivarden said. "What's the worst call you've had today?"

If Zack wanted to complain he was welcome to.

"Bunny rabbits," Zack groaned. "Somebody wanted a dozen bunny rabbits, all with little roses tied to their head, all sitting neatly in a basket that they'd put flowers into, too. And I had to point out that the bunnies would eat the flowers, and that living animals don't genearlly sit neatly in one place for an entire week, and there aren't many people out there who are equipped to handle a dozen rabbits."

Especially since, with rabbits, a dozen didn't generally remain a dozen for long.

"I assume they weren't offered as dinner."

Seivarden made a face.

"I stayed in a planet for a while where the customary gift was a live animal that you were supposed to kill yourself and eat in front of the giver."

Obviously few Radchaai had done that.

Zack blinked.

"Well. I... guess at least they were making sure you were fed?"

Which he hoped was the point of that. He couldn't think of any other, really.

"I prefer the food being dead when it's served."

It had been a horrible, uncivilized place.

"So, what do you have in need of rescuing today," Seivarden continued a little more cheerfully.

"Besides me, you mean?" Zack offered Seivarden a wry smile. "Puppies, birds, a couple of lizards. And kittens. So many kittens. We had a couple entire litters of them come in last week, and now I'm kind of torn between needing to find homes for them, and doing everything I can to make sure they don't end up coming back again after the holiday."

Edited 2018-02-06 16:54 (UTC)

"I'm sorry I can't help you with the kittens," Seivarden said. "I'm just surprised they haven't taken over the place."

It might actually be fun to see them.

"I figure if they aren't all out front, people won't decide out of the blue that they should surprise somebody with one," Zack replied, shrugging his shoulders. "They're all in one big pen in the back room, if you want to play with them for a bit."

"Why not?" Seivarden said. "I won't adopt one as a gift, I promise."

She might ruin her gloves, though. She was aware of that,

Zack laughed a little, and then gestured for Seivarden to follow him into the back room.

"I really appreciate that," he replied. "As much as I'm sure you know plenty of people who would love to have a kitten around."

There, beyond the door into the next room, was a big cage with various cat toys and a bunch of small cats all bounding around and playing. Or napping. Or eating. Doing a good many cat things, really. Zack opened the cage door and stepped inside first, mostly to make certain no cats made a run for it.

Seivarden followed him. She smiled as she stepped into the cage. It was hard not to when surrounded by happy kittens. She knelt down and reached out her hand, which was immediately attacked by a grey kitten with tiny claws and big eyes.

Zack smiled a little as well as a little orange tabby started to climb its way up his pant leg.

"Looks like you've made a friend already," he teased, crouching down to try to unhook his own kitten friend from his leg. "She's a cute one, I have to say."

They were all cute ones, Zack.

"She is," Seivarden agreed. "They all are. Although I often find that adult cats have a stronger personality. That can be good or bad though, I suppose."

"I'm pretty sure an adult anything is going to have a stronger personality," Zack noted. "Once they've had time to learn where they stand in the world, you know? Kittens are still just small, still discovering things. It's a lot of work getting to know yourself and everything around you."

"I'm not sure that's true for human children," Seivarden said. "But definitely for kittens."

She scooped the grey one up in her hand, and she was content to let her as long as she could dig her claws in. Gloves could actually be practical. Then a black and white one jumped up on her knee and reached up to sniff her face.

"Am I going to be covered in them soon, do you think," she said with a laugh.

"Oh, you're definitely going to be covered in them soon," Zack agreed, even as he sat himself down and let a few kittens start to crawl on him, too. "You're new and interesting, and probably fun to climb on. That's pretty much their favorite thing, right now."

At least she was being someone's favorite, Seivarden thought, unable to hold back the self-pity. She was distracted by another kitten jumping up on to her shoulder, using her claws to keep her balance there. Holding back cry of pain, Seivarden pushed the most recent attacker down onto the floor again and then looked up.

From the other end of the cage a white long-haired cat was watching, with blue eyes fixed on Seivarden. Seivarden blinked, and the cat closed her eyes.

Zack found himself reaching down to scoop up the little jumper before he could give it another try, and parked the tiny guy on his own shoulder, where he was happy to settle in, rather than terrorizing Seivarden some more. That was about the point that he'd noticed Seivarden making eye-contact with the other cat. And that was about the point where he smiled again.

"A blink from a cat is a good sign," he noted. "It means they're at ease with a person."

"She looks like she won't try to sit on my shoulder," Seivarden said, pushing herself on to her feet and adjusted her gloves after the kitten attack. She crossed the floor and reached a hand out to the cat.

"You're a bit too big for that, aren't you?"

"That doesn't stop some cats anyway," Zack noted, as the kitten attackers all redoubled their efforts to take a person over, climbing on him, instead. "But she's been pretty good about that sort of thing since she came in. She's a good girl. That's why we can keep her in with the kittens without having to worry about her trying to be dominant over them or anything."

He watched with a smile as the cat sniffed at Seivarden's hand, and then, with a soft but audible purr, leaned forward to rub her cheek against it.

That was impossible to resist. Seivarden rubbed the cat's cheek and then scratched her head, which met with approval and more purring.

"They don't bother her?"

"She knows how to get up to the higher places they can't quite manage yet," Zack explained, smiling, "so if she needs a break, she just climbs. And then swats at any kittens who are wily enough to figure out how to get up there."

Which didn't bode well if anybody wanted to make she she wasn't climbing up on kitchen counters, perhaps, but that was what training was for.

"Don't you get fed up with them though?" Seivarden asked the cat while stroking her back. The only reply she got was more purring and an enigmatic look.

"That's why there are plenty of places for her to go," Zack replied, still smiling. "We'd give her a kennel to herself if we could. Heck, we'd give them all kennels to themselves if we could. But this isn't actually a very big building, or a very big island, and there's only so much we can do."

Because putting them down was not an option. This was not that kind of shelter.

Carefully Seivarden reached out to see of the cat would let her lift her. She hadn't done that in years, but she had learned during her childhood that cats reacted very differently to being held.

This cat quickly made herself comfortable in Seivarden's arms and continued purring.

"She's very friendly."

"She is," Zack agreed with a nod. "One of the friendlier adult cats here, I think. We've got a few ferals in the back that we're still trying to socialize, but I think this little lady was used to people before she ended up on her own, and then in here. She knows exactly how to get her way."

Hence the purring.

The cat looked up at Seivarden, then closer her eyes and continued purring.

"She's a beautiful cat," Seivarden said, and was about to set her down again when the purring stopped and was replaced with a displeased wail.

And Zack bit the inside of his cheek.

"She is. And she's never done that before." He paused. "Maybe because I always smell like dogs?"

He didn't think Seivarden had that problem, really.

Well, if it made the cat happy Seivarden could hold her a little bit longer. She lifted her up again and the cat resumed the purring.

"Does she have a name?"

The cat looked up at her, and Seivarden smiled back, unaware of it.

"We've been calling that one Lily," Zack offered, not about to point out that smile. He knew what that smile was. That was a dangerous smile, right there. "But that's mostly so that we can tell them all apart. People who adopt them are welcome to change their names, of course. It isn't like they answer to them yet."

"She doesn't look much like a flower," Seivarden said. "I'd probably change it."

As she said that she tried to set the cat down again. The cat cried as if she was suffering painfully and Seivarden lifted her up into her arms again.

"What's the matter?" she asked the cat, who was now purring again.

"I think she likes you," Zack offered, as the cat nuzzled her face right into Seivarden's armpit, refusing to budge and purring even more loudly, now. "Here, I can try taking her, if you like?"

"Oh," Seivarden replied. "Yes."

She offered the cat to Zack, perhaps a little reluctantly.

Zack offered Seivarden a little smile, hopefully a reassuring one, and then reached to take the cat.

The moment his hands were on her, she started to growl.

"Okay, she's definitely never done that before."

He held his hands up again, leaving the cat in Seivarden's arms.

"Oh."

Seivarden looked at the cat, who was now looking up at her.

"You want me to keep holding you?" she said. "I can't do that all day."

The cat blinked. Seivarden stroked her head.

"Maybe if we walk around the buidling for a while, she'll get her fill?" Zack glanced toward the cage door. "We can get her away from the kittens, at least."

He was now removing a few of those kittens from his person, in fact. Maybe that had been why she was yowling.

"Yes," Seivarden said. "Yes, we should do that."

She added to the cat: "Is that what you want to do?"

The cat looked up at her and purred.

Yeah, sorry, Seivarden. Zack didn't have much hope that the cat was going to give up on you, at this point. Still, he opened the door, and then carefully stuck his foot out so as to corral any kittens who thought they were going to make a break fof freedom.

"I think that's a yes," he offered.

It was beginning to dawn on Seivarden what was happening. She tried not to think about it. She couldn't look after a cat. It didn't matter how pretty and friendly she was --
Well, friendly towards Seivarden, at least -- it wasn't going to...

The cat looked up at her, yawned and purred.

"Where do you want to go?" This was asked of the cat rather than Zack.

Yeah, Seivarden was doomed. Zack was biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, now.

"I'm pretty sure we all already know the answer to that one."

And that answer was 'home with you.'

Seivarden was silent for a moment.

"I'm not sure Peter would approve."

The cat looked up at her and purred.

Zack raised his eyebrows a little.

"Well... you could ask him."

It was generally easier than making assumptions, wasn't it?

"He's already annoyed with me. I'm not sure what he would do if I showed up with a cat."

She paused.

"I suppose I could ask him. Although I'm not sure the cat would agree to go back if he said no."

When had she become this easily persuaded by a cat?

"Maybe he'll like the cat," Zack noted. "And if he doesn't... you're always welcome to come back and visit her. I can put a note out for the vet staff that she isn't for sale, until you have a place of your own or in case Peter decides it's fine after all."

"I'm not sure I'd be good at looking after a cat," Seivarden began.

The cat stretched out a paw along her arm and yawned.

"I suppose she needs food?"

"Most animals need food," Zack confirmed, smiling faintly. "She'll need food and a litterbox, and water, and toys. And because she's got long hair, you'll want a brush for her, too. We actually have starter kits to make it easier for people who have never had a cat before. I can talk you through all of it."

"Oh," Seivarden said, scratching the cat's neck as she raised her head. "That would make things easier. I think I might need you to do that."

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Furnado Animal Shelter, Tuesday

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