Kitty, Kitty

"It's really coming down out there."

Andreas' gaze was locked on the open window and the rain that was pouring down beyond it. My eyes wandered to the window and I spoke scathingly.

"I hate Autumn rain."

"I know. It's cold and wet, just like snow. Therefore, you hate it. Just like me."

Andreas smiled down at me from his perch beside me on the couch. I leaned into his chest and he wrapped an arm around me as I lazily changed the TV channel. We had been dating for three weeks and things were going very well between us. It was a Monday, and we had had to cancel our plans for the day when the rain started. We'd been planning on going into Berlin for the day, but neither of us really felt like trudging around in the rain all day.

The TV murmured in the background, mostly ignored. The sounds of the rain were very relaxing and I was having to fight to stay awake, Andreas' musky and comforting scent making the task all the more difficult. Abruptly, Andreas grabbed the remote off my lap and muted the television.

"Do you hear that?"

"What?"

"Listen."

I listened, my ears perked up for any sound. Finally I heard it, the sound of a very pitiful cat's meow. Climbing out of Anreas' embrace I moved to the front door and opened it slowly. Something moved in the bushes beside the stoop.

"Kitty, kitty?"

The animal mewed softly in response.

"Here kitty, kitty. I won't hurt you." My voice was as soft and comforting as I could make it.

Slowly but surely, the cat moved toward me out of the bushes with me offering quiet comfort and assurance. As it moved into the light spilling out from the house, I saw that it was a very small and underfed calico kitten. The tiny thing finally came close enough to sniff my proffered hand, and allowed me to pick it up. I carried it into the house. Andreas came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of warmed milk.

"This will have to do until we can get some kitten formula from the store."

He set the bowl on the floor and I set the baby on the floor next to it. The kitten started lapping up the milk eagerly and I turned to Andreas.

"You like cats? You've never mentioned."

He shrugged. "Just hasn't come up, I guess."

Thinking back on our conversations, I accepted that this was true. Cats, or any pets, really hadn't come up at all. Odd.

"I actually thought I'd have to use the milk to lure it out of the bushes. Didn't realize you'd be able to convince it to come out so easily."

"Years of practice," I explained. "These last few years that I've lived in Germany have been the only years in my life that I haven't had a cat."

"Really? Any particular reason that you haven't?"

"Lived in an apartment until recently."

Andreas nodded slowly. We stood together, watching the kitten drink its fill. After a couple short minutes, the calico walked away and started to wash itself inexpertly.

"Poor thing. Wonder what happened to her mother."

Andreas shook his head sadly.

"I'm guessing you don't have any cat litter about?"

"Nope. Don't have any litter pans either." Glancing down at my watch, I continued. "Store's going to be open for a while yet. We should probably just go pick up some things for her."

He looked out the window disdainfully, then looked back to the kitten, who was now curling up to sleep on the rug. (The rug that had finally been moved away from the end of the hall, by Andreas, to under the window.)

"Alright. No avoiding it. I'll grab our jackets."

He walked out of the room and to the hall closet. I slipped into my shoes and donned my jacket when he handed it to me. Grabbing my keys off the coffee table, I took one last look at the calico kitten and we headed out into the piercing rain.

Later on, it would strike me as funny that there was never any discussion about whether or not we would be keeping the kitten. And there was never any discussion about who would keep the kitten. Whenever we spoke of her, we simply said our kitten. If I had paid any attention to that, I might have realized just what it meant for our relationship.

We went a little overboard on supplies. Not only did we buy litter and a litter pan, but we also bought two kinds of formula, and three kinds of kitten food. "What if she doesn't like the first kind?" was Andreas' reasoning. We bought her matching dishes for food and water and we got several toys and a scratching post. At my suggestion, we bought catnip spray, in case the scratching post didn't immediately catch her fancy. We also bought a small staircase to be set up by my bed. As small as the kitten was, it would be a while before she'd be able to jump onto the bed.

Laden down with our purchases, we returned to my house and set up her box in the kitchen. When it was time to show her the box, we realized that she wasn't easily found. Andreas finally found her sniffing around under my bed. He had to slither underneath it on his belly in order to get her back out. She jumped right back out of the box when we set her in it, as cats usually do. We watched her slip around the corner and back into the living room, off to explore again.

"She's going to need a name."

"Sure is."

"Any ideas?"
"Nothing particularly exciting."

"Let's give it a couple days. Shouldn't pick out a name before we know something of her personality yet, anyway."
"Very true."

A/N I'm open to ideas for the name of the kitten. :)