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Snowball
by Kathryn Burns
© October 19, 2001
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An Earth: Final Conflict Story
Rating: G
Archival: Mine, All others ask!
In response to Sharon's challenge to write a NO-ANGST fanfic!
Disclaimer: You know the drill. The characters in this story DO NOT belong to me. They belong to Roddenberry/Alliance-Atlantis, Paramount, Pet Fly Productions or whoever owns them -- I'm just borrowing. I DO NOT make any money off this. I do this strictly for fun and personal enjoyment. I promise to return the characters (relatively) unharmed. For the record, I'm just a college student and have absolutely NO money at all so please don't sue me.
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Joshua sighed as he entered his apartment, and in an exaggerated gesture, collapsed onto his couch. The day had been long, but he refused to let himself think about it. Now it was time to relax . . . at least until tomorrow. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and sighed again.
He was suddenly startled as something jumped onto his chest.
Joshua relaxed and rolled his eyes. "What exactly do you think you're doing?" he asked the kitten. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
The cat mewed and pawed at his arm, sniffing his face. She then promptly turned around, lay on his chest and started purring, completely ignoring him and the fact that her tail swished across his face. When Renee had given the kitten to him on his birthday the week before, she had not mentioned its attitude. The cat seemed to enjoy annoying him - jumping into the middle of his papers and scattering them everywhere, clawing everything in sight. And when you moved her away from the papers or from clawing the furniture, five minutes later she would be doing the same thing again.
"I should probably give you a name shouldn't I?" Joshua asked aloud.
The cat ignored him, but swished her tail indignantly as if saying 'Isn't that obvious?' The tail continued to hit him in the face.
Joshua picked up the cat and turned her around to move the tail away from his face. "That's not nice."
The cat glared at him momentarily, then turned back around to resume swatting him in the face with the tail. Joshua grinned. Yup, definitely a feline with attitude.
A knock sounded at the door. Joshua started to sit up and the cat haughtily stood up and jumped down, and began cleaning her fur. Still grinning, Joshua opened the door.
"Hey Renee. Come on in."
Renee stepped inside and glanced around, "Looks like you're settled in alright."
Joshua nodded, "Yeah. I got the last of the stuff unpacked last night, amazingly enough. My cat doesn't seem to impressed though."
"What did you name her?" Renee asked with interest.
"Ummm, I haven't." Joshua said sheepishly. "I've been so busy with other stuff that I haven't really thought about it."
Renee raised an eyebrow, "You haven't named your cat yet?"
"Nope."
"You should." Renee said.
"I know. I will." Joshua grinned. "How about Snowball?"
Renee gave him her patented mock glare, "She's all black. Besides, the name is overused."
Joshua shrugged, "Okay . . ." The cat jumped into Joshua's lap and started purring.
Renee smiled, "At least she likes you."
"She does have an attitude."
"All cats do." Renee laughed. "Every single one has an attitude." She paused, "You know it strikes me as odd that you can run a multi-million dollar corporation and you haven't even named your cat yet."
Joshua shrugged again. "Well, I happen to like the name Snowball." The cat started purring again. "See she likes it."
"Well, Snowball it is then . . ." Renee said.
"Hey, I heard you gave Augur and Liam cats for their birthdays too. What did they name theirs?"
Renee smiled, "Augur named his cat Lili. Liam named his white cat 'Ashes'. I don't know what it is with you men and naming cats . . ."
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