Caɾղaցe Ɱօօղ ~𝙰 𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌

9 🌙

"The littler one is quite timid, but the big one has already scratched me up pretty good." She rubbed her fingers, tsking.

The veterinarian technician lifted a brow, looking up from her clipboard.

"Mrs. Harrison," she said patiently. "You know you cannot declaw cats that are part of your trap-neuter-release program? They need their claws to survive out there!"

"Oh, yes I know." Mrs, Harrison waved a hand at her, smiling and unoffended. She adjusted her glasses to better look at the terrified, puff-furred cats. The tabby and white one was snarling with warning, its ears flat and claws extended as it crouched against the black one.

"I found them at a different spot. I was at Blue Lake Camping Grounds yesterday when a young boy who was interested in the program told me he'd seen cats around the other side of the lake. Of course it was too overgrown over there, so I just tried next to one of their hiking trails instead." Her teeth clacked together, the glue of her dentures softening and causing them to nearly fall out.

"But these two are quite young. I plan to make them my house cats," she murmured thoughtfully. The old woman then began picking up her word-pace, rambling. "I know I rehomed those five-month old motherless kittens we found last year, but now I think that two cats around Quri's age could fit into my home quite well. She seems to bother my older cat, Celia, you see. Even though they're related show-line bengals, Celia has gotten pretty far up there in her years now. And I don't go to cat shows anymore."

"Hmmm..." the tech took a moment to answer, but then nodded. "Well, I'll let our veterinarian know all of that before he comes to see you. Really it's down to his recommendation." She lifted her head to stare at Mrs. Harrison directly in the eye. "Doctor Elsher will have to perform an evaluation under anesthesia because they are, however, old enough to be considered feral. You trapped them yesterday, right?"

The two she-cats stared through the bars of the cage at the flat-faced twolegs uncertainly. The old woman nodded.

"Oh, I can see that. And yes." She laughed and smiled at the young red-haired woman kindly. "But I think they could adjust to my home eventually. Don't you?"

🐈‍⬛

When Crescentpaw awoke she sensed the white-pelted Twolegs touching her. And yet she could hardly see or focus on them.

The she-cat was too disoriented to even realize where she was. But at least she could feel Tinypaw's sleek black pelt beside hers.

She stifled a meow of confusion. Her perception contorted so badly that she fell asleep again within a few harrowing moments.

It was not until the next day that Crescentpaw woke again. She heard the sound of a white-pelted Twoleg opening their cage door. He then reached in to unwrap tan bandages from around the apprentices' two front legs. There was bloody gauze around their paw-pads that had to be peeled away, causing Crescentpaw to wince. However, the pain was somehow subdued- and she found that she was still too drugged to react further. She could hardly even interpret what was happening, let alone why.

Tinypaw was still stirring as the Twoleg placed a small bowl of fresh kittypet food, and then water inside the cage. Crescentpaw stared at the creature, noticing how odd and pink it's face looked.

In fact, everything looked odd. They were now inside of a different, larger cage. The walls were white, almost everything was white- save for the smooth grey of the back-room's flat tables, and the metal of their shiny cage bars. IV's stood thin and tall on their versatile round black wheels. Shiny white flooring contrasted itself with dark-tan grout. The room was lined with light pink baseboards and windowsills. Each set of blinds was white-on-white to the silk-smooth curtains, which were drawn closed along each window.