One Word Prompts 2021

Fuzzy - Cat Owner Problems

Well, this was her life now. She had been about to sit down and get some work done. There was quite a backlog built up too. She could see the pile of papers she needed to get through today there on the end of her desk, and that didn't include the email inevitably waiting in her inbox or the milk crate of paperwork that got put off from last week.

She shook her head and sighed into the fluffy side of the purr-box who had planted himself on her chest. He looked up at her, his big, gold eyes asking why her hands had stopped stroking him. She chuckled and resumed rubbing his head.

He wasn't a lap cat. He was too big for that. Attempts to put him in a lap always resulted in him clawing his way off immediately or leaping off within minutes. But, if one scooped him up, sat down, and then leaned back in one's chair, he was quite happy—if he was in the mood—to sit on one's chest for hours, loudly purring the whole time.

However, it was challenging to do anything else in that position.

Her hand drifted under his chin, rubbing from his soft cheeks to his hard jaw. He closed his eyes, a satisfied smirk on his little cat face.

Generally, she knew better than to pick him up right before she intended to work on something. But today, just as she sat down to blow through those papers, he sauntered into her office, mewling loudly.

Overall, he was a polite cat, as far as cats go. He wasn't overly talkative. He generally only yelled when he needed something. A clean box. Fresh water. Food, but only if it really was meal time and it hadn't been given to him yet.

So she'd assumed he'd needed something when he came in yelling.

"Okay, okay," she'd said, standing back up from her desk and following him out into the hall. "I'm coming."

He strode down the hall toward the bedroom, stopping and looking over his shoulder to see if she was still following periodically. He stopped before the bed and looked up at her, meowing determinedly.

She frowned. "What do you want? There isn't anything for you in here."

He meowed again, rubbing his cheeks against the bedpost.

She shook her head, gave him a good pat, and then turned around to leave.

He yelled again, running between her ankles.

"Alright," she said, scooping him up in her arms and scratching the ridge between his eyes. "Is this all you want? Huh? Attention? Are you lonely 'cuz no one else is home? Huh?"

He chirped and rubbed his head against her shoulder. His purring reverberated through his whole body. His paws started flexing, kneading her arm like a kitten.

"Uhuh." She chuckled and carried him back to the office. "You're just being a little whiny baby today, aren't you?

He chirped again, shifting his head so her hand rubbed behind his ear.

"It's a good thing your cute, you know that?" She entered her office, fully expecting him to leap out of her arms for the window ledge (his preferred place when he wanted her company while she worked). But he didn't budge from her arms.

That was fine. She could give him a few more pets. Or so she thought as she lowered herself into her desk chair. He shifted in her arms as she leaned back in her chair. She tensed in anticipation of him using her legs as a springboard to the window, as was his habit.

He didn't. Instead, he settled between her arm and chest, rubbing his face against her happily.

"Guy," she chuckled one of his many nicknames. "I have work to do!"

He didn't acknowledge the concern and instead began kneading her shoulder again.

"Fine," she had said, stroking his back. "But only for a minute."

It had been far more than a minute. Much, much more than a minute, and he was still happily purring away in her arms. It would be very easy to set him down. At least, the physical action was easy enough to perform. Generating the willpower to crush her baby's happiness on the other hand...

So here she was, petting her cat, staring at the work piled high on her desk. This was her life now it seemed.