Alfred finds Arthur's missing cat and Arthur comes running to get it back. (Have a safe flight!!)
Wrote this in first person because why not?
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Okay, let’s get one thing straight. I’m not. Ha ha, okay but seriously, I’m not a cat person. Don’t get me wrong, cats are cool. They play piano on the internet and freak out when they see cucumbers. Cat’s just aren’t for me. You can’t teach them tricks, they don’t listen to you, they never use the litterbox, they only let you pet them when they want to be pet. Yeah, I’m just not a cat person.
Besides, cats just seem to hate me. It doesn’t matter what I do they’ll always run away or his at me. I’ve been told I’m too loud but that can’t be it because even when I don’t make a sound they freak out. My personal theory is that I spend so much time with my dog Alpha that I smell like a dog, so the cats freak out because they think I’m some weird giant dog.
Maybe not the most grounded theory I’ve come up with, but it makes sense to me! Anyways, now that we’ve established that I don’t like cats and they don’t like me we can get down to business. Unfortunately we’re not going to to defeat the huns.
So I’m walking Alpha right, everything is normal, he’s sniffing stuff to his heart’s content and I’m enjoying getting outside for once. It’s all normal until this cat walks right up to us. Alpha stops to sniff it and starts growling because he can be kinda over protective of me. But the cat doesn’t seem fased at all. It just walks right up to me and starts nuzzling my leg like it’s completely normal.
Needless to say Alpha is barking now. The cat still doesn’t care. Being the good citizen I am, even though I don’t like cats, I picked it up so Alpha wouldn’t hurt it. Not gonna lie, it looked funny. The ears were all folded up against it’s head and it had the funniest markings on it’s face. It looked like it had eyebrows! I’d call them little but that’s the opposite of what they actually were.
So there I am holding a funny looking cat with eyebrows with my dog barking at the two of us when this guy runs up to me, completely if the barking dog. He kinda looked like the cat. Okay, the only real similarity was the eyebrows. Looked cute on both of them though.
“I’m terribly sorry, I have no idea how she got out of the apartment. Thank you for catching her.” I eagerly handed over the cat and got Alpha to quit his barking. His next mission was sniff the new guy. Judging by his accent I was pretty sure the guy wasn’t from around here. More specifically he probably came from across the Atlantic ocean on an island north of France.
“Yeah no problem, it’s kinda weird though, cats usually don’t like me.” As I spoke this guy’s face kinda scrunched up, like he was confused or something. Though it was only for a moment.
“I’m sorry, could you say that a bit slower?” Odd request, but not one that I don’t get a lot.
“Oh, sorry. I was just saying how cat’s don’t usually like me so I thought it was weird when she started to nuzzle up against my leg.” I made sure to talk slower, and the guy’s face didn’t scrunch up again, so I guess that’s a good sign.
“She’s usually not so friendly if I’m honest. I suppose she just knew you would be the one to save her.” The guy gave me a quick little smile and I knew right away that I couldn’t just let this guy take his cat and leave. I’m not a cat person, but I never said I have anything against cat people.
“Yeah, I’m kinda the rescuer type. Hey, why don’t you give me your number, that way you can call me next time she gets out and I can come help look for her. Or ya know, you could call me for some other reason?” His expression fell, never a good sign. Though he looked more sad than upset about being subtly hit on.
“I don’t have a phone, I’m sorry but I really should get the two of us back home.” He looked down, what’s the word, resigned? Anyways, no way I was letting him get away that easily.
“Come on, there’s gotta be some way you can talk to me later!” The guy didn’t answer, didn’t react at all. So I went to grab his hand, just gently. I got my hand smacked away though.
“Don’t you know how rude that is?” Guy definitely wasn’t happy.
It took a bit, but all the pieces started to fit together. Neither the cat, nor her owner mind the barking dog, not once did he ask me to be quieter, just to slow down, didn’t have a phone (or maybe he did, just didn’t use it to call). And he got really upset when I tried to grab his hand.
I wasn’t as sure about the cat, but I was pretty sure the guy was deaf.
Now, I do know a bit of ASL (useful when training dogs with hand signals!), but considering that stands for American Sign Language I’m pretty sure it’s not the same in other countries. Still it didn’t hurt to try.
Making sure Alpha was sitting I just slipped the leash loop around my wrist and signed out as best I could “Sorry, I didn’t know.” Lucky for me he understood, and his face light up when he saw me sign. That was a sight I’d love to see again and again. Seeing as he had a cat in his arms he couldn’t really sign back, not like I’d understand it.
“It’s alright, I can read lips just fine. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to ask but, could you help me find my way back to my apartment? I’m not entirely sure what direction I came from.”
“Oh sure, no problem. Like I said, I’m kinda a rescuer.” He gave me another quick little smile, and hey I was gonna take any opportunity I could get.
“Thank you, ah-”
“Alfred, A-L-F-R-E-D, and you are?”
“Arthur. That’s A-R-T-H-U-R.” He got this smug little smile on his face as he spelled out his name. Guy had an attitude, it was cute.
I really like Arthur, heck I even like his cat. So what I guess I’m trying to say here is, I guess I can make an exception for this cat. Good thing too since she ended up moving in a few years later.
