Even though Catalyst buys tons of books he still struggles with reading. Alison is nothing but supportive of course and offers to sit with him and help, which maybe he agrees to once or twice but he's self conscious and it makes him feel even less adequate and broken because he SHOULD be able to do this, in his eyes, no matter how Alison tells him otherwise.
When they adopt Poppy into their family she becomes Cat's reading buddy. Because therapy dogs are amazing and Poppy is super chill and so bonded to Cat. He did save her life after all. And he's great and gives her so many extra treats even when Mom says not to.
So maybe he sits in his closet, still his safest place, when he reads and Poppy curls up beside him or in his lap and lays there while he reads. And no matter how relaxed she is she doesn't go to sleep. Not completely anyhow. She's always tuned into Catalyst, and notices even minute shifts in his moods because of the little vibrations he constantly gives off? And his heartbeat and maybe slight chemical changes too. Dogs are amazing guys. (Other animals too)
So when he gets hung up on a word and starts to get anxious and frustrated, even if she was dozing she immediately wakes up. It's not abrupt, just lazily comes to and licks his hands or his leg or boops some part of him with her nose to let him know she's there and things are ok. Whatever she can to calm him down until he gets the word or skips over it, using other context clues to gleen its meaning and making note to ask Alison how to pronounce it later. Or maybe even looking it up online himself.
