Adventures in Cat-Napping

Chapter 11.

"What?" Ali asked, momentarily pausing his breakdown to glance her way.

"I didn't mean you," She quickly rectified, and he physically relaxed. "But for Harriet, I think we should buy her a replacement," Nora grinned, crunching the packet in her hand before licking the salt from her fingers, causing her tastebuds to sing and Ali to grimace in disgust. "She's obviously lonely, let's get her a new cat,"

Ali overtly allowed his thoughts to cross over his face. He was thinking about something serious while Nora contemplated on whether to drop her empty packet on to the pavement, or to be a decent human being and throw it in the bin. She wasn't a decent human being, but she did care...a little. A small sigh exhaled from her lips, as she twisted the red wrapper, and walked the seven steps to the black trash can, across the road.

In the minutes it took for her to return, Ali had made his decision and his eyes were no longer glazed with unshed tears.
"Alright," He agreed, "We'll buy her another cat...do you know of any local pet shops?" Her blank expression gave him the answer and his lips raised in a half smile, as he pulled out his mobile. "We'll have to buy her a Ragdoll," He decided aloud with determination, as she fished her keys from her dungarees and unlocked the car. "Preferably one similar to Billy-"

"Now you're making it sound like we're committing some sort of heist," Nora pointed out, a strange buzz of excitement bubbling in her stomach, as she moved her seat back so that she had some extra leg room. "Are we...committing some sort of heist,"

The silence only encouraged her rebellious side to tingle with joy, and she leaned back, tapping her thumbs on the wheel. Stealing a cat would of course, be terrible, but technically it already belonged to Ali. Plus...maybe the old hag wouldn't even notice, cat's all looked the same to Nora, so long as it was the same breed-

"No," Ali informed her, breaking her stream of insubordinate thoughts, "no, we can't do that. She adopted Billy fairly, but if we have the chance to explain, and maybe...if we had a replacement she'll understand,"

"And if not, we'll sneak in and swap them!" Nora suggested, her smile slightly too wide to be deemed normal, and Ali expressed as much.

"Let's just find somewhere that sells cats first," He decided, pulling out his mobile from his pocket and encouraging her to do the same. They both spent the next forty five minutes, speaking to various pedigree sellers, local stores and browsing the internet for any inkling on where they could find a ragdoll.

So far they'd had no such luck, and Nora was craving a hot chocolate. She'd not had one in five hours, and her head was beginning to spin as she listened to Ali ask the seller if they had the cat they wanted. Her head was leaning back on her seat and she could feel her stomach whirring, wishing that it could have some food to eat. She had her snack bag in the boot but even the thought of walking out of the car was too tiring. Still, there was definitely a chocolate bar in there- it wouldn't be the same but maybe Ali could...her thoughts were interrupted as she absorbed the information Ali was relaying.

"Okay great, we'll meet you in half an hour," He ended the call with a small smile, tucking the device back into his pocket before adjusting his belt.

"Good news?"

"I'm not sure yet," Ali verified, his realistic nature preventing his glee to fully form. "But maybe," He told her the address, and she set up the map, adjusted her seat and slid her belt into place, moving the chest strap so that it was behind her.

The next thirty minutes were incredibly tense. Nora chose not to believe that this was potentially their last chance but the grim reality was staring at her in the face. If they couldn't buy a Ragdoll, she was out of ideas. There wasn't anything more they could do.