Family

Charles

Lisa is holding her new kitty, Charles, as she and Lauren follow Mommy. She is so happy that Mommy let her keep Charles.

The tiny kitten has nestled comfortably in Lisa's arms napping. Lisa is stroking him gently, the soft fur feeling amazing on her skin.

They enter a bird room where Dani and Amy are admiring all of the different types of avians. Christina and Katherine are having a conversation about Lisa's new kitty.

Lisa still couldn't believe that they let her keep Charles. She was so grateful. Words couldn't be described. She would take care of him as much as possible. She would feed him, brush him, water him (even if he didn't like the water). She would take care of him until he became a grampa cat.

Katherine walks over to Lisa and Lauren protectively stands in front of her [Lisa]. Lisa bites her lip nervously. What if mom doesn't like Charles and let her keep him? She braces herself for rejection. She was used to it anyway.

"Hey Lise, sweetie. What's your little kitten's name?" Katherine smiles sweetly, the gentleness obvious in her voice but, Lisa doesn't trust it. Her dad was gentle before he rejected her after her mom's death. He was gentle and basically said that the only reason she was alive was because of her mother, and now that her mother was dead, Lisa was dead to him. Then he put her in foster care. So, gentleness means nothing.

"Charles... Short for Charleston" Lisa replies in a soft voice.

"Well, that's a nice name. And as sure as I am that Charles is a nice cat..."

Lisa already knows what is coming next. Mom doesn't like Charles and wants to get rid of him.

"Well, I think we need to leave the bird room... Because of Charles being a cat... and, you know birds."

"Wait you don't want to get rid of him? "

Lis is genuinely confused, Her dad would have never allowed her to keep a cat. Or even visit the animal shelter in the first place, mom might of... if she didn't... die.

"No... Of course not sweetie. Mommy told me you wanted to adopt him so, you can adopt him. We will be going to a pet store too. Got to get stuff to take care of Charles right?"

Lisa nods slowly, still very confused. She was scared that they were going to change their minds and reject her kitty (Who was still happily catnapping by the way).

Christina then walks over, leading Dani and Ames toward them. Lauren relaxes from in front of Lisa and instead runs over to Christina motioning for Christina to pick her up. Christina obliges and sets her on her hip in the characteristic 'mom' fashion.

Alright, hon. I'm ready.

"Ok, kids, We are going to go adopt Charles and our new puppy... Hon... What are we naming our puppy?"

Ummm... how about Tasha? From what I remember from my language classes... its short for Zatasha, and it means "Made up of golden stars"?

"Yeah. I like that name... Tasha. Alright, well we need to go to the front and adopt Tasha and Charles."

Everyone nods as wehead out toward the front.