nishka//loki (nishka) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-09-18 14:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | belobog, loki |
A Group of Cats is Called A ‘Clowder’
Who: Thomas and Nish
What: Friends take a feline to a cat party :)
Where: Catcon Worldwide at the Pasadena Convention Center
When: Backdated to August 13, 2017
It was a long drive to Pasadena from Newport Beach, but it was well worth it. Bear was secured with a harness and tucked into a sling carrier, with his leash coiled in Nish’s pocket while she and Thomas walked around the convention floor. Bear poked his head out of the sling, eyes wide and dark with wonder and fear, though Nish never stopped petting him and scratching his head to reassure him that she was there.
“Ohh, look how cute,” she said as they stopped at a stall advertising personalised ID tags that looked just like state driver’s licences. “He could definitely use one. He’s an indoor cat, but I still have nightmares of him getting out somehow and I lose him.”
The Catcon was unlike anything Thomas had ever been to before; cats were absolutely everywhere, and he thanked his lucky stars that he'd 6th fortunate enough to never develop an allergy. As they strolled past stall after stall of cat memorabilia and more practical tools of the cat lover's trade, Thomas made sure to drink in every last drop of excitement.
Everyone here was positively happy, and he loved it. Well, on second thought, perhaps some of the cats weren't as happy as their owners. Poor Bear seemed to be included in that group.
“He'll be a regular Drivin' Miss Daisy with a tag like that,” Thomas commented, moving closer to the displayed tags in order to take a closer look. “I’d hate to see a gentle feller like himself get into a real bind.” He shot a sympathetic glance towards the cat of the hour, the fluffy little being swaddled like a babe in Nish's safe grasp. A thought of goodwill came to him, and he reached for his wallet.
“Why don't ya let me get one for him, Miss Nish? It'll be a proper thanks for the soymilk coffee on the way up here. ‘Course, it'll also help keep him safe.”
Nish looked up from the tag she was inspecting with surprise. “Ohh, you don’t have to do that!” she protested, “this costs more than just a coffee…” She had a feeling he wouldn’t take no for an answer though, so she nodded with a grateful smile and they headed to the cash where they took down all of Bear’s information, snapped a photo of him and handed her a receipt and a promise that the finished tag would be mailed to her.
“I’ve never actually been to one of these before, but when I heard about it I just couldn’t resist.” Her eye was caught by a few cats in a plexiglass room playing with someone whose back was turned to them. And then as she watched, that person stood and turned around, and she saw that it was in fact Max who was holding court with all of the playful cats. Nish frowned just a little, and then her face broke out into a smile. “Max?” she asked aloud, though she was too far away to hear her. Nish looked up at Thomas with a grin. “She’s in our building...a friend of mine…”
“You’re mighty welcome,” Thomas responded with an ever cheerful smile, glad to have simultaneously helped Nish and Bear. “Can’t say I’ve ever been to one of these con festivals either, but ya know what they say about a first time for everything.” In truth, he likely wouldn’t have ventured out to the event without Nish’s invite--come to think of it, he’d never even realized there was such a thing as a cat con until recently.
Thomas turned his attention to the small, repetitive sounds of mewing from within the pen, noting the woman inside who seemed to be making friends with the housed kittens. At Nish’s admittance, he looked at her incredulously for a moment before accepting the inevitability of how Pax Letale operated much like a small town--running into another neighbor at any given time was easier than tying a shoe. “Ain’t that something, another one of our neighbors here, too! We oughta go say hi to her, let her know we’re pleased as punch to see a familiar face.”
Or soon to be familiar face, as it were, in his case.
Nish smiled at him and cradled Bear to her chest, heading towards the glass room and waving when she finally caught eyes with her friend. Max enthusiastically waved back, showing her utter excitement at where she currently was. She turned, searching for something, and then picked up a young adult calico cat, showing her off to Nish. Nish chuckled and looked at Thomas. “That’s her cat, Cali,” she explained, walking him over to the glass room just as Max slipped out to greet them.
“Hey Nish! Isn’t this the best thing ever?” she said, clearly at the height of excitement. “These are all cats looking for their furrever homes,” she explained, “well, except for Cali. She’s just there to play!” She turned her eyes on Thomas then and smiled. “You look familiar...do I know you?”
Thomas couldn’t help but catch Max’s excitement, and he’d decided that any friend of Nish was therefore a friend of his--or very well could be. It seemed that Max had brought her cat to the convention, too; Thomas still found himself marveling at the basic concept of a cat convention.
“I don’t believe so,” he said cheerfully, at ease among the cat connoisseurs despite the fact that he had no feline friend of his own. Unless Bear counted. He might. “My name’s Thomas, ya might have seen me postin’ on the forum for Pax Letale.” He held out his hand to the woman in greeting, smile wide and inviting. “I live on the ninth floor, and I reckon it’s not so bad a spot.”
“Well it shore is nas to meet ya, Thomas,” Max said playfully in a fake Texan accent, grinning at him and shaking his hand. Nish chuckled at their interaction and watched Max reach over to pet Bear on the head. “Small world, huhh? I’m beginning to think that all us Pax people are just...drawn to each other or something?” It was a joke, said lightly, though part of her really did believe that. Everything seemed to revolve around that small group of people ever since she moved there.
“So are you thinking of adopting?” she asked him, “these kittens are all rescues looking for homes…”
Thankfully, for all of their sakes, Thomas was no stranger to folks from other parts of the world attempting their hand at a relatively southern sounding accent. He took Max’s attempt in stride, no ill will between the two of them as their introduction to one another completed itself.
“Maybe that’s so,” he said thoughtfully, “or maybe the world’s just a lot smaller than we all think it is.” It did seem otherwise, from rumors and stories he’d picked up since moving into Pax Letale. However, Thomas quickly reminded himself that Matthew had practically recommended the building to him, and Matthew’s word was as good as gold. Thomas trusted his best friend to have stellar judgment--and look, he’d already made another friend.
“I don’t quite know if I’m up to par with being a bonafide cat caretaker,” Thomas admitted with a cheerful grin. He looked to Nish, and the wide-eyed Bear in her arms. “But I’ve managed to make the acquaintance of this fellow here, believe it or not. A kitten, on the other hand…” his gaze shifted to the small animals climbing over one another, pouncing and frolicking in innocently fiendish delight. “They might be outta my range of expertise.”
Max’s smile softened and she nodded. “Well I won’t lie, kittens are a lot of work, but the joy you get from them far outweighs that. I was sort of thrown into it when Cali chose me...she was just a wee thing, loitering on the first floor of Pax. She demanded I take her home and she’s stuck to me ever since.” She glanced back at the enclosure, watching Cali frolicing with the kittens. It wasn’t until she saw them that she realised just how much Cali had grown since they first met, and that filled her with pride.
“I got Bear as a kitten,” Nish said happily, “a friend’s cat had a litter and I took one...back then he looked like a tiny little polar bear cub,” she said with a warm smile and a scratch on Bear’s head.
Thomas looked curiously at Max when she mentioned how she found her cat, glancing over at Nish to see if she thought it was a little odd, too. He certainly couldn’t judge Max for taking in a stray animal--they rehabilitated plenty of wild animals at the ENC, after all, and it was a noble cause--but the apartment building didn’t necessarily seem like the…safest place for a small kitten to be living.
Not in the hallways. Not when he’d had giant snakes living on his floor, and Nish had dealt with a mysterious giant vulture swooping in and out of her apartment as if it lived there full-time.
“I reckon I’ll be plenty happy visitin’ Bear now and then,” Thomas finally said agreeably. He smiled over at the cat he’d befriended, thankful in this moment that neither him nor Max’s small Cali cat had been adversely harmed by the apartment’s recent visitors. Bear responded by slowly blinking back at Thomas. “But I sure appreciate you askin, Miss Max,” he added as a measure of cordiality. “I won’t lie, I hardly expected to see anyone here I recognized, but I’m glad we’re now acquainted. Nish, ya think we’ll run into anyone else from home?” He couldn’t fathom Matthew attending an event like this, heaven forbid.
“No problem,” Max replied cheerfully. “If you ever change your mind, they have lots of cats at the shelter that need homes.” She turned to Nish who smirked and made a very subtle ‘are you and he…?’ gesture, to which Nish almost imperceptibly shook her head and smirked.
“Well, I gotta get back in there, but it was great seeing you both! Nice to meet you, Thomas!” Max said, waving cheerfully at them as she headed back into the enclosure full of purring kittens. Nish chuckled to herself as she watched her go.
“Now that I think about it, I should have expected to run into her here,” Nish commented, “she’s such a cat person. She told me last week that she’s started volunteering at the shelter on her off hours, helping to take care of the cats.”
Thomas said his goodbyes to Max in turn, adding another neighbor to his mental list of who he knew at Pax. So far, he hadn’t met anyone he didn’t like, and he hoped to keep it that way.
“That’s awful nice of her,” he told Nish appreciatively, gesturing that they should keep walking--there was still so much left to see, and he didn’t know how much stamina Bear might have for being in large crowds. “Come to think of it, I read at work the other day about something called ‘kitten season’ around these parts. She’s probably part of the solution instead of the problem, no offense to the kittens born, of course. They can’t hardly make their own decision in the matter.” Nish nodded as they walked, glad that she’d had Bear fixed when he was a kitten. Currently he was alternating between hiding his head in the crook of her arm and looking out at the sea of cat people walking around, occasionally waving at him or blinking at him or asking to pet him.
As they walked together, Thomas noted an information booth and hurried over to grab a map and a list of the day’s activities, realizing he’d lost his own pamphlet shortly after they’d arrived. “Miss Nish, ya lookin’ at listenin’ to any of these panels? Looks like they got a whole lot of ‘em, rangin’ from cat health to how to connect better with the felines of this planet, big and small.”
Nish looked over at the pamphlet and noted a few that sounded interesting. “We certainly could - he’d probably welcome the quieter atmosphere,” she said, looking down at her poor cat who was yet again hiding his face in her arm. “How about that one about decoding cat behaviour? That sounds like it would be useful,” she grinned.
“Sure thing!” he said happily, closing the pamphlet with the air of a man who has, at last, made up his mind--with a little help from his friend. “I reckon we’ll be able to better communicate with Bear afterwards, and find out what he thinks of this whole affair,” Thomas joked, gesturing with one hand to the convention center. “Communication, I hear, is just about the best thing for makin’ sure every relationship in life is workin’ properly,” he mused, nodding towards the direction of the panel. Nish nodded and then paused for a moment, smiling softly to herself as a sudden realization dawned. Lack of communication about the right things had been what had ended her and Rafe’s relationship, but the open and honest communication between them now was what was keeping them friends. If only she’d figured that out months ago, they might still be together.
“Let’s get this fuzzy critter in a quiet place, he looks a mite tuckered out.”
Nish was slightly startled by that, having briefly forgotten he was there, and then smiled back at him. “Yeah,” she said, looking down at Bear hiding in his sling, “I think after the panel we might grab a coffee and head home; it’s been a long day for him.” She followed Thomas into the panel, lovingly cradling her furbaby.