Title: Ryan's Cat

Summary: Ryan finds a kindred soul.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the cat.

Author's Notes: Wow. I'm overwhelmed by all the kind words about my simple little story here. My first.

Chapter 5

Ryan was sitting on his bed, still working on his endless mound of homework. Cat had gotten restless over the last hour or so and had been wandering all over the pool house, checking out every last corner, jumping up on everything. Ryan heard her in the kitchen, eating some dry food and drinking some water. He also heard her using the litter box -- that is, he heard her digging at the litter afterwards. So, good, she found it and knew how to use it.

She wanted to go out -- she scratched at one of the pool house doors -- but Ryan didn't want to take the chance that she'd run away or get lost, so he didn't want let her out yet. He went over and picked her up and carried her back to the bed with him. After a large amount of scratching around her ears and under her chin, running his hands through her fur, and other such attention, she finally settled back down next to him. Ryan went back to his homework.

There was a knock at the pool house door. Whoever it was waited for an answer before coming in. So Ryan answered, "It's open."

It was Seth. He came in, just inside the door, and shut it behind him. "Hey, man. It's almost 9."

Ryan looked over to his right at the clock. It was 8:52. "Hey, you're right. You've learned to tell time. Congratulations."

Seth gave Ryan a look like his humor wasn't appreciated, and said, "Wednesday night? 9 O'Clock? Our favorite show is on? Remember? The Valley?"

"Seth, I've got a mountain of homework today, and with Cat here and all I'm way behind. I'm going to have to skip it this week."

Seth whined, "But -- Summer's watching it this week at home with her Dad, and we always watch it together. I need someone to listen to my unbelievably funny digs at Grady Bridges... Come on, man."

"Sorry. Can't."

"Fine, fine. If that cat is more important..." Ryan silenced him with a look.

Seth wanted get back on Ryan's good side, so he asked, "How is the cat doing anyway?"

"Hey, you haven't really met her yet. Why don't you come over here and see for yourself?"

At this point, Cat was lying next to Ryan with her head up, watching Seth. Ryan had his hand on her back, hoping to keep her from getting scared as Seth approached. The last time, when they met, Seth stayed near the door, so Ryan wasn't sure if Cat would see him as a friend or not, like she had with Kirsten.

Seth hadn't had much contact with cats, or dogs, or pretty much any pet for that matter. The only pet he'd ever had was a turtle he had briefly when he was 7. That turtle met with an unhappy ending, which Seth didn't like to think about. So he wasn't sure what to do when approaching this cat. He walked slowly forward and sat kind of awkwardly on the edge of the bed, keeping an eye on the cat the entire time. She didn't move.

Seth leaned over and stretched out his hand towards the cat's head. He remembered seeing some program on TV about approaching dogs and letting them sniff your hand before you pet them. He didn't know if cats were the same way, but he figured it couldn't hurt. So he unknowingly did the same thing that Ryan had done when he first approached the cat -- he stopped his hand an inch or two away from the cat's face and waited. Awkwardly.

Ryan watched Seth with some amusement, and tried hard not to laugh at him. Seth was lying in an odd position from the edge of the bed, reaching over to Cat near him. Cat didn't seem to know what to make of Seth, either. She got up into a sitting position, a foot or so away from Seth's outstretched hand.

Seth pulled back to sitting on the far edge of the bed. "She doesn't like me."

Ryan couldn't hold back a little chuckle. "She doesn't hate you, either. You should see what she did when your Dad came in. She immediately bolted and hid under the bed. And then she wouldn't come out, even after he left. She just needs to get used to you. You need to spend some time with her."

Seth was a little put out, and besides The Valley was about to start. So he got up and went to the door. "Maybe later. I don't want to miss the beginning of the show."

Ryan watched Seth leave, and once Seth closed the door behind him, Ryan couldn't help but laugh at the memory of Seth stretched across the bed towards Cat. Ryan took Cat's head in both of his hands and scratched her along the neck and under the ears. And then went back to his homework, again.

The next morning, Ryan dragged himself and his bookbag into the kitchen, running late. Seth, Sandy, and Kirsten were already there, having their coffee and breakfast. Ryan dropped his bookbag next to the kitchen table, grabbed a box of cereal from the cabinet, sat down at the table, and started eating out of the box.

Sandy was the one standing closest to the coffee machine. He could see that Ryan really needed some coffee this morning, so he said to Ryan, "Coffee?"

Ryan looked over at Sandy, a little sleepily, and replied, "Thanks."

Sandy smiled, got a cup out of the cabinet, filled it with coffee, and brought it over to Ryan. "Rough night?"

Ryan sighed, figuring that he was going to get an I told you so from Sandy. "Yeah. Didn't get much sleep. Lots of homework. Cat kept interrupting me, so it took forever to finish. Then when I finally did get to bed, Cat wouldn't settle down. I guess she's used to running around all night with her cat friends."

Sandy laughed, "Sounds like a boy I know." Ryan gave him one of his looks.

Kirsten thought this might happen. She reassured Ryan, "I'm sure she'll settle down once she gets used to living indoors with a family again. You may have a few sleepless nights first, though."

Ryan looked at Kirsten. "She wanted to go out, but I didn't want her to get lost and not be able to find her way back, so I didn't let her out. Was that right?"

"Yes, that was a good idea. You should keep her in for a few days so that she associates the pool house with home, and will come back to it. Maybe we can start letting her out over the weekend."

"What about today? While I'm at school? Will she be OK home alone?"

"She'll be fine. She'll probably sleep all day. Cats aren't like dogs. They like to be alone."

Ryan nodded, thoughtfully, and went back to eating his cereal and drinking his coffee.

Seth said to Ryan, "Come on, man, let's go. We're going to be late." It was going to be a long day.

When Ryan came home from school, the first thing he did was to check on Cat. It had been a long day at school. He was tired and couldn't stop thinking about Cat all day. He was relieved to see her through the pool house door curled up on the rug, in a patch of sunshine. She looked so cute there. OK, he did not just think that.

Seth walked up behind him and said, "Dude --" Ryan jumped, startled. He didn't hear Seth coming up behind him.

Seth laughed and said, "Dude, you really need to stop drinking so much coffee." Ryan just gave him a look.

Seth looked through the pool house doors and saw Cat on the rug. "Aw. The cat looks so cute!" Ryan looked at him sideways. Seth can't read thoughts, can he? Nah...

Ryan cleared his throat and said, "So where's Summer? Why aren't you with her?"

"She and Marissa went out for some girl-time. You know, shopping, exfoliating, whatever. She'll be by after dinner. Oh, I forgot --" Ryan watched Seth turn and hurry back into the house, to do whatever it was that he forgot to do.

Ryan opened the pool house door and walked in, hoping that Cat would wake up and come over to him. She didn't move. OK, so she's not a dog. Ryan dropped his bookbag on his bed and headed for the bathroom. When he came out, Cat still hadn't moved. Maybe she was just really deeply asleep. But Ryan couldn't stand it any more. He wanted a little Ryan-Cat Time. He went over and picked her up and brought her back to the bed with him. Of course, this woke her up. She shook her head and stretched her legs, front then back. After rubbing the side of her head against Ryan a little, she jumped off the bed and headed for the kitchen.

Ryan figured she'd be back after eating and drinking, so he stayed on his bed and opened his bookbag. He took out all his books and notebooks. He was organizing what all homework he had when he saw Cat come back out of the kitchen and settle back down in the sun on the rug. Well, so much for Ryan-Cat Time.

After he finished setting up what homework he had to do, he headed into the house to get something to snack on. Seth was sitting on the couch in front of the TV. When he saw Ryan come in, he said to him, "Hey, man, I tivo'ed The Valley last night. Let's watch it. Since Summer's out, it's Seth-Ryan time."

Ryan felt a little bad about having to cancel out on Seth last night, even though he had no choice. And he knew that Seth really liked Seth-Ryan time, and pretty much counted on having some whenever Summer was out with Marissa. The truth was that Ryan rather liked Seth-Ryan time himself. And since Cat wasn't paying any attention to him right now, it was a good time to hang out with Seth.

So Ryan replied, "Yeah, great."

Ryan and Seth grabbed some snacks and drinks, and settled down in front of the TV to watch the previous night's episode of The Valley.

An hour or so later, after the show was over, Ryan headed back out to the pool house to start on his homework. By this time Cat was sleeping on the bed in her usual place. Ryan noticed that the patch of sunlight on the rug was gone. He guessed that she went back to her usual place when she couldn't bask in the sun any more.

When Kirsten got home from work, she grabbed her shopping bag from the car and headed out to the pool house. She was surprised at how excited she was to have a cat in the house. With Cat's arrival yesterday, she realized just how much she missed having a cat around. She couldn't resist doing a little shopping for Cat on her way home.

As she approached the pool house, she could see through the doors that Ryan was sitting on the bed doing his homework, and Cat was sleeping on the bed near him. This was pretty much the same scene as the last time she was in the pool house, last night. Since the shades were up, she didn't bother to knock, but just went ahead and opened the door.

Both Ryan and Cat looked over at her as she entered. Ryan said, "Hi."

"Hi. How are you and Cat doing?"

"Good." Ryan noticed that Kirsten had a shopping bag with her. "You went shopping?"

"I picked up a couple things for Cat."

Kirsten opened the shopping bag and took out a scratching post. She said to Ryan, "Hopefully this will keep her from scratching the furniture or the rug. But not all cats like to use a scratching post, so she may not even use it. We'll have to see."

Ryan nodded. He'd have to figure out a place to put that. Ryan saw Kirsten reach back into the shopping bag and take out something that made noise like jingle bells when she moved it. He saw that Cat was immediately interested by the sound. She stood up and went over to the edge of the bed.

Ryan watched Kirsten carry whatever it was over to the bed and hand it to him. Ryan looked at it. It was a package of three little balls which looked like miniature soccer balls. They were plastic and must be hollow, each with a bell inside. He shook the package, the bells jingled, and Cat came right over to check it out. Kirsten and Ryan both laughed.

Ryan said to Kirsten, "I guess she likes them. Thanks."

"I knew she would. Aren't they the cutest thing? I saw them in the store and since you play soccer, I thought they'd be perfect."

"Yeah, cute." Yeah, too cute. He'd have to hide these whenever anyone else was in the pool house. He didn't do cute. He'd have to tell Kirsten, some time, to not buy any more cute stuff.

Ryan opened the package and took out one of the balls and rolled it across the bed. Cat immediately went after it and batted it off the bed. She jumped down after it. Ryan could no longer see her, from where he was sitting on the bed, but he could hear the sound of the ball being batted around. It sounded to him like Cat was having a lot of fun.

Kirsten said, "Before I forget. I got the name of the vet from Jimmy, and called and made an appointment for you and Cat for tomorrow, Friday, at 4 O'Clock. Don't worry about payment. I set up an account, so they'll bill us whenever you take Cat in."

"OK, thanks."

"You should bring her in the pet carrier. I don't know if she's ever been in one, and even if so, it has probably been a long time. You might have some trouble getting her into it. So tomorrow start working on getting her into it some time before you have to leave for the appointment."

"OK."

"Well, I'll let you get back to your homework. Dinner will be here in about an hour."

Ryan nodded. Kirsten smiled at him and headed for the door. She picked up the now empty shopping bag and took it with her back to the house.

After dinner, Summer came over as expected, so she and Seth were off doing whatever they do alone together. Ryan was back out in the pool house with Cat.

He was sitting on the floor playing with Cat and her little soccer balls. He took one and shook it, making the bell jingle. Cat crouched down like there was a mouse or something there to stalk and attack. He rolled the ball in her direction. She reached out with a paw and batted at it, and it rolled back near him. He picked it up and rolled it back to her again. This time it got past her, and she went after it. She batted it away from her, then went chasing after it. She did this several times, until the ball got stuck behind the night table.

She sat there, crouching, looking at where she last saw it before it went out of sight behind the table, like she knew it was there and was waiting for it to come out on its own, like a mouse would. After watching Cat sit there for a minute and realizing that she wasn't going to move on her own any time soon, Ryan picked up another one of the balls and shook it, getting her attention. She turned towards him and got into a crouch. He rolled the ball past her and she went chasing after it.

Ryan got on his hands and knees and crawled the few feet over to the night table and retrieved the first ball. He sat back down next to the night table and watched Cat bat the second ball around. He remembered being in second or third grade and going over to a friend's house who had a cat. They played with the cat there in just the same way. And she was just as cute as Cat was playing with her balls. OK, he's got to stop doing that. Not cute. There's nothing cute here. Cool. Yeah, that's it. This was just really cool.

Seth and Summer were standing outside the pool house doors. They watched with some amusement as Ryan threw the balls to the cat, and she would play with them. When she couldn't stand it any more, Summer opened the pool house door, walked in and said, "This is so cute!"

Seth walked in right behind her and closed the door. He gave Ryan a grin and said, "Playing with your cat? What are you, like 8?"

Ryan gave them both a look that could kill.

Seth knew that look and knew that this time, Ryan wouldn't be too tolerant of more jokes at his expense. So he grabbed Summer and said to Ryan, "OK, well, I just wanted Summer to meet your cat. We'll be going now."

Ryan continued to give them the death stare as they left the pool house. But he was not as mad as he let Seth think. He had noticed that Seth said, twice, your cat. He had never had anything of his own before, not like this.

'Wow,' Ryan thought, 'She's my cat.'