Bad Luck: At the Zoo (Josh)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

((OOC: This is backdated to the beginning of December.))

Mreow! Mreow! Mreow!

Sean rolled over and squinted at the alarm clock. The red numbers flashed 1:03, and so he pulled his pillow over his head in an effort to block out the noise.

That did nothing to stop the cries.

Mreow! Mreow! Mreow!

This was going to wake the neighbors. Granted, the telepath slept more lightly than most, an outgrowth of both the telepathy and his insomnia, but this was too loud for the average person to ignore.

That cat.

A stray cat had appeared in their neighborhood one day. Nobody had laid claim to it, not even the families who already owned cats. Then, for some baffling reason, it had taken a liking to Sean.

Dead rodents and birds had been left on their front door. Some missing their heads, tails, or limbs. When Sean was outside, the cat would come closer and meow at him, trying to get his attention. The telepath was fairly sure that the cat had begun to sleep in his garage to get out of the cold or to avoid other bad weather.

Then the constant crying at night. All night, every night.

He had not slept well in days as a result. And with winter recess in a couple of weeks, he would only find himself around the cat more often.

Mreow! Mreow! Mreow!

He sighed and rolled into a seated position. Beside him, he felt Josh stir, and he knew that his partner was awake.

“We need to soundproof this room,” he murmured.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh buried his nose into his pillow, mumbling an incoherent objection to being so rudely awakened so early into his night. He didn't particularly dislike cats, although he was more partial to dogs as far as the traditional big two went, but he didn't want to own one.

Especially since he had a rabbit in the house.

Ever since the cat had begun camping out in their yard he had lived in fear that it would dart into the house the moment the door was open, thus endangering Mopsy.

"Wish someone would claim it," His complaint muffled by pillow. He had kept an eye out for any Missing Pet signs, but seen nothing.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean sighed since his efforts to block out the cat’s plaintive mewling failed in all respects. More than that, rather than managing to fall back asleep, instead now both he and Josh were awake. That was not how he wanted to spend the night.

Particularly not when sleep was so precious to him in the first place; insomnia was not his friend, even if it served as a constant companion.

“Why would anyone claim her?” The telepath was fairly certain the cat was a her as opposed to a him, based on some of her behaviors. They hadn’t had any urine sprays, and he thought that was common with tomcats. The cat that had taken a liking to him did not seem territorial but rather actively friendly. Perhaps such thoughts were to engage in unfair gender stereotyping, but as he did not think that cats had gender identities as opposed to biological sex, it did not matter.

“She obviously doesn’t have an owner.” The way she behaved also confirmed that opinion. Although he had never owned a cat, he knew that house cats behaved differently from feral cats. Surely a house cat would have wandered back to its home at some point. Instead, this cat camped out on their property and hunted for them.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh sighed and rolled onto his back, flinging one arm across his face. "Surely she belongs to someone. Missed by someone. Or is she a stray? Do you want me to get a trap and see if we can lure her with tuna? I can take her by the vet if we catch her..."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean had hoped that Josh could roll over and go back to sleep, if he couldn’t sleep through the cat’s incessant crying. After all, there was no sense in both of them losing sleep. However, given the fact that the younger man was fully coherent and engaged in conversation with him, it seemed that that ship had sailed.

That was too bad, as it would be a long night.

The cat continued to cry pitifully outside the window, and so he pulled the pillow closer, pressing it against his ears. It wasn’t as though he required his ears to have a conversation, one of the many fringe benefits of telepathy.

“She’s obviously a stray.” To his knowledge, family-owned pets that could go outside still stayed in their neighborhood, close to home. Nobody on the cul-de-sac or on the nearby blocks knew this cat, which led him to believe she had to be a stray. And thus they had nobody to whom to return her.

“If we managed to catch her, then I’d need to drive her to the vet.” It was winter in Vermont, which meant snow. Taking a wild cat on the back of a bicycle was a poor idea in good weather; in bad weather, it was to invite disaster.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"If we don't do something neither of us is going to get any sleep." Josh pointed out with another yawn. "And I'm not going to adopt a cat even temporarily with Mopsy about. Maybe we can call someone. D'you think Cobalt and Ben's cat would want a friend?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean conceded that point. In fact, he had had no intention of arguing to the contrary, but they had to figure out what that something was, and he had wanted his partner to realize that whatever course of action they chose would involve the telepathy, as he remained the sole driver in their household.

Fully awake, he rolled over to face his partner and tilted his head to the side. “Who was suggesting we adopt a cat?” Left to Sean’s own devices, they would have a total of zero pets in this house. He had accepted Mopsy’s presence here with open arms, as part of the reconciliation with Josh, as he had no desire to force his partner to give up his rabbit. But having another animal in the house? Certainly not. That such an animal was a potential predator to Mopsy only made the suggestion more laughable.

At the other question, he shrugged and shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t, but I’ve spent almost no time with that cat.” Not that he knew what animals wanted in the first place. “There’s a no-kill shelter around that I know takes dogs. They might take cats also.” They would have to look into that, as he possessed no further information than that.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh pressed the palm of his hand into his forehead. "If they don't take cats they should at least have a better idea of where to take it."

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, then arched his back with a yawn. "I'll go get the phone book."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean shook his head. “Don’t get the phone book. It’s the middle of the night.”

If either of them was to have any hope of going back to sleep tonight, they had to avoid the common pitfalls that would result in the flow of adrenaline. Such as turning on the lights, getting out of bed, or engaging themselves in a task that required any degree of concentration: like fetching the telephone book and looking up numbers for animal shelters.

He wanted to sleep. Eventually, the cat would go somewhere and stop crying for a couple of hours, and they could tend to this in the morning. Preferably when either of them had had more than an hour of sleep and could speak coherently while assessing their options.

To that end, the telepath turned over in bed and tried to nestle himself within the blankets again.

“If they don’t take cats, we can ask around. Half of the adults at Hammel are lonely.” That was not quite betraying a confidence, since he did not provide names and did not describe reasons for his coworkers’ loneliness. Four years ago, Sean would have had to count himself among those numbers, although that would never have been enough to make him adopt a cat.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh rolled back into bed and tugged the covers over his chin.

"Very well." He yawned as he pressed his face into his pillow. "In the morning."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“In the morning,” Sean agreed, and he rolled back under the covers, shifting in the bed to make room for his partner once more. In the morning, they could focus on the situation more clearly. Since the telepath’s schedule was winding down for the winter break, he could always find time to go with Josh (and drive Josh) to the vet to find a way to deal with the cat.

Although he had no experience with stray animals, some of it was basic: find the cat, give her some food, and then take her for medical care prior to adoption, including any shots and to make sure she was spayed, if she had not already been spayed. But they could deal with that in the morning.

With that, the telepath moved closer to his partner, wrapping his arms around him. Soon after, he fell back asleep.

*****************************

The next morning, Sean woke and went about his routine. Once showered, shaved, dressed, and with coffee and breakfast made, he went outside to the area behind their house in search of the cat. Unfortunately, by this point, she was nowhere to be found.

After searching for a few minutes, he sighed and returned to the kitchen.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Due to a combination of the weekend and the cat's interruptions the night before, Josh wound up sleeping later than usual. By the time he awoke Sean was already downstairs, in the kitchen. The smell of coffee and breakfast enticed the attorney to wakefulness; he quickly showered and shaved, then dug out a sweatshirt his mother had given him for Hanukkah. He was not typically in the habit of wearing sweatshirts, but it was cold and he had no other plans and anyway, it was a sign that she had accepted all of him.

"Morning," He yawned in greeting to his partner. "any grand plans for the day?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Because of the weekend, and the fact that it was December and a few weeks from the holidays, Sean had devoted some time to making their breakfast thematic. As a result, he had cooked brioche French toast with fruit garnish (although the options were slim in the winter), scrambled eggs, and Applewood smoked bacon. The table was set, with the food out, and coffee in the pot. The telepath had poured himself a mug, but had left the rest in the pot to keep it warm for his partner.

By the time Josh arrived downstairs, Sean had already read a fair portion of the morning paper and had moved on to the crossword puzzle, where he was already five clues in.

Lifting his head to look at the other man, he said, “I have a little bit of work to do to wind down before winter break, and I want to get a little cooking done this afternoon. I also tried to look for that cat but I couldn’t find her.” Which was to say that, otherwise, he had no plans for the rest of the day. Reaching for his mug, he took a sip of the still-hot liquid. “And how about you?”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh slapped his forehead with his hand.

The cat.

They would never get another night's sleep again if they didn't find her.

"I'll go look up animal shelters. Maybe someone can come out and get her for us."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“Eat first,” Sean encouraged. He anticipated that the search for the cat would take several hours, and the telepath had spent enough time making their breakfast that he did not want it to get cold before either of them ate. The difference between weekday and weekend breakfasts, or weekday breakfasts and breakfasts during vacations, was stark in the Neville-Bernstein household. During the week, they had simpler breakfasts: English muffins or cereal or toast, typically mixed with fruit because the telepath wanted them to eat lots of fruit (and vegetables during supper). On weekends, he made these larger, lumberjack-style breakfasts, both for himself and for Josh. The only similarity between the two was the ever-flowing coffee.

Afterward, they could focus on the cat.

“Then we can look up animal shelters and look for a blanket that needs to go in the wash anyway.” The telepath’s suggestion made plain that he had little practical experience with animals, certainly with cats. However, he had heard and read before that it was possible to swaddle a cat into submission, and the blanket would be thick enough to protect them from errant scratches or bites.

So he hoped. They could also borrow oven mitts from the kitchen for that goal.