Two pairs of eyes. One of them gives a sharp, almost audible blink. The other stares wide-eyed and worried, both surrounded by dark, shrouded by shadows that hide all but that telltale reflection in their beady pupils.
"We got no choice."
"But..."
"This is better."
"But..."
"We can't keep them, you know we can't, we' can't even –"
A voice breaks, starts weeping. Mewling whimpers. The first voice, deeper and masculine, pauses. Then –
"Hey, hey, I – I don' wanna do it either. But this...us." A sigh, resigning, "This is what we get for it."
"Don't say that, Dog." The second voice wails. "You mean we were wrong?"
"No, no – honey, honey don't cry." The scene comes into view, slowly. The less-than spacious interior of a house, in a desolate canyon-area. A window overlooks a murky river. The house is sparse. Temporary accommodation. Here, there were less prying eyes. Where they came from? Heck a guy couldn't peer around a corner without getting pounded for –
A stout, red-nosed Dog stares at the wall, clutching a cat to his chest. His fur is lighter, almost fawn and dotted with large brown spots. Her fur is golden, soft and without a mark. Fat, thick tears stream from her eyes, down her purple nose. Heck, he hates it when her whiskers droop like that. She's staring at the wall, too.
"Dog." The feline half-wails, hands and cheek pressing further into his chest, as if they're surrounded. "Why does it have to be this way?"
His paws clutch her shoulders. "I, uh..." He fights for an explanation, "'Cause the world sucks, honey."
"I won't live with myself." The droopy cat says, almost to herself. "I'll think about them forever."
The dog settles his chin on the cat's head, sighing. "I know, hun."
"They look like you."
"Heh, look like you two, babe. They're our sons."
"Our boys."
"Yeah." The Dog glances at the staircase. "Our boys."
On cue, a wail tears from the floor above. The cat rushes out of his arms at once, up the stairs as if her life depends on it. He follows, head bent, floppy ears hanging.
The buggy is all they have to put them in, bundled up in a mismatched blanket. She's holding them, humming a purr-like tune, and for once he sees her shaking stop. She's always emotional, no filter for it. Seeing her relax with them in her arms sends him into another wave of guilt.
He remains aloof.
The babies are two, though when people confronted them in the street, or cornered them in the night, they called their boys 'one'. Who woulda thunk it? There were cat-dog couples all over this run-down valley they'd fled to, but any kid they had was either one or the other, they could pass as either. Heck, sometimes people had to inform others of what they were. He was sure that trash can holder he'd seen back in town wasn't actually a monkey.
So having kids with such a big distinction...so clear, what they were. A cat, a dog. Conjoined.
Same fur, same spots. Same beady eyes. If they weren't stuck together, you'd still know they were related.
The dog is suckling on his fists, curled under his mother's chin. The little cat is fussing, waving tiny paws, cheeks almost as red as his nose. His mother nuzzles his cheek, whispering gently. She loves them, loves them both.
He loves them all.
The dog sighs.
The hospital went nuts. He remembered getting odd looks, bringing Cat in – but then he'd been shoved out of the delivery room, said there were 'complications'.
He got looks, in the waiting room. He wondered if this was his fault, if they wouldn't make it and then –
Yelling. Quite a stir, if little, in the hospital wing. CatDog, nurses were yelping, more astounded than horrified – but hey, still horrified.
It took Dog a moment to realise that they weren't talking about him and his wife. He rushed in, rules be damned, and found his wife alone. He'll never forget how lost she looked, asking for her babies. Babies? Twins?
They'd reluctantly brought the babies back and that's when they saw...
Dog realises he's been standing staring into space for a while, and he swallows. Cat looks to him, her pink hat slipping down past her eyes.
He draws near and kneels beside her. He strokes the twin's heads, smoothing down their ears. His fellow canine smiles in his sleep. The kitten peers at him, unknowing, his lips a wobbly line.
"Hey buster." His dad mutters. "I hope you're nothing like your old man when you grow up."
Cat's hand closed around his. He feels reluctant to look at her face, but still. She smiles, an equally torn smile as her son's.
"I hope he's like you, smart an' all. I was never smart."
"You're brighter than anything, hun."
She closes her eyes, ducking her head. "Do we have to? Do this?"
"...People are gonna find us, and we have nothing, hun. I saw the folk at that cave, they have more than we ever will. No one will find 'em, at first. No one will bother them growing up and they can..."
He trails off.
"Gotta...lead folk off. If we go one way..."
Cat says nothing, still holding them. Then, she lifts them towards him – he hesitates, them takes them both. He has no idea how to keep them still. They're both awake now, peering up at him. He laughs, quietly, tickling them each under the chin.
"Coochie-coo. Who's the words most special boys?"
The dog yips loudly, trying to catch his finger. The cat is batting as his ears like they're yarn. "Not Papa's ears, Son!"
A pulling sound and a yelp.
Cat takes them back, chortling, and spins around with them, ditzy and silly and the most beautiful thing he's ever seen...
Dog sighs, but it falters, that happiness, so does hers. They know what has to happen, tonight. Now.
She stops spinning, clutching them to her chest as they nod off.
...
A Cat and a Dog had learned how to move quietly. Up the rocks, the dog practically carrying the cat halfway up. They both almost falter; both almost go rushing back, the guilt, the hate, everything pounding on them like a drum.
But eventually, they make it to the mouth of the cave.
She hates the hard ground, wishes they could've at least gotten the buggy up. It's just for a moment, he says.
It's the footsteps plodding to the cave mouth that make them go, at last, gives them that push to pull away.
The kitten held the father's hand, the dog held the mother's, and then they slipped away.
...
It was quite a ruckus at the hospital, the day those two were born. The doctor remembers all too well. There were no names given, just 'Cat, Dog'. Did they mean the couple, or the babies? Being a doctor, he knew that all conjoined twins were two people.
It was astounding, once in a million. A total divide between siblings of two parents. Who were also stuck together.
No birth certificate was put down, again, no names. The couple ran for it once people started hearing about it down the road at the news station. They booked it.
Cats, Dogs, he'd heard incidents following – 'Hey, I saw some cat-dog couple getting jumped last night with some two headed baby!'
There was hatred, heck, fury on both sides. Cats and dogs hated each other for centuries. It was a feud that had gone on forever.
He wondered what became of that Cat and Dog, the humorous canine and the dreamy cat, and their kids.
...
I like to think that Cat still takes after his Dad both adoptive-wise and biologically, vice-versa with Dog and his mother. In the movie Dog theorized that their parents were a 'CatDog' but obviously that wouldn't work; since any other cat-dog would have to be siblings. So, its safe to say that they had cat-dog parents and are simply a once in a lifetime kind of conjoined twin.