AN - well, here's chapter two … sorry it took so long …
Disclaimer - I don't own it! And you won't get anywhere by pretending that I do!
Dedication - this chapter is dedicated to Siri and Charlie
Thanks SO MUCH to all my awesome reviewers! YAY!
Zippy - Wings - yeah, yeah … I'm not looking at you. Is this chappie any better?
glowing - ice - thanks for the review … you weren't introduced to The Suite Life?
liteswitch - again, is this chappie better? And yes, I have the whole series planned out …
Chihuahuaauthor99 - yes, they did put Natalie in Cody's backpack, so no worries
sandylover - thanks so much J I love kitties too
Now, obvious complications can come up with keeping a kitten in a hotel … especially when the owners of said kitten aren't allowed to have any pets other than pet rocks. Fortunately, kittens are easier to hide than horses, and they are easier to keep in a bedroom than a horse. Natalie didn't escape from the bedroom. That meant, however, that she spent the whole night jumping from Zack's bed to Cody's bed, back and forth all night, so Zack and Cody didn't get much sleep, and were sleeping when their mom knocked on their door at 9 am.
"Zack! Cody! It's breakfast time … "
"Allright, Mom, we're up …" fifteen minutes later, they sat down to breakfast.
"Okay, what's up? You two never sleep late on summer vacation. I would have expected you up at six. Why get up so late?
"Well, we didn't get a lot of sleep last night …" Zack commented
"Why?"
"Well, because we …" Cody kicked Zack under the table. Somehow Zack didn't make a sound, but he looked at Cody, who gave him a glare, and Zack realized what was wrong.
" Well, we were wondering where we were going to spend the summer"
"Mostly with me, but your dad's coming in a few weeks to take you on vacation for a week or so." Zack and Cody just nodded.
"Any idea where?" asked Cody
"No. That's between you and you dad. Now, I've got to go to rehearsal for a few hours, so I'll be singing right downstairs, if you need anything.
"Thanks Mom,"
"See you later"
After their mom left, Zack and Cody could finally open the door to their room, and sure enough, out streaked a little grey furball. After a few minutes, Natalie came up to Cody, and meowed, wanting to be held.
"She sure is cute" Zack commented, when Cody picked her up "And she's probably hungry. Shall I get out some cheese?"
"No … she needs proper cat food. She'll need a litterbox, too" Cody paused a moment. "She'll probably want cat toys, and … she'll need a bath."
"Slight problem." Zack interrupted. "How do you propose to pay for everything? Cat toys, cat food, a litterbox, not to mention litter, probably a cat bed, AND pet shampoo! That's going to cost a lot of money, and I only have ten dollars from my allowance!"
"I have twenty bucks that I saved from walking London's dog Yevanna (AN - is this spelled right? Please correct me if it's not …) And we don't have to buy all of it … Let's just get a box, cut off the top and put some sand in it? That can be a good litterbox, and we won't have to work about taking out the litter - we can just dump it outside and it won't be polluting! And we can find stuff to use for cat toys … and the bed … well, we can find something to use. That only leaves the cat food and the pet shampoo. We can handle that with thirty dollars."
"Okay, but what about shots?"
"Never liked them"
"No, I mean for Natalie!"
" um … we can save our money again?"
"Okay …" and so Zack and Cody put Natalie in their room, where Natalie decided she'd like to have a pillow for a kitty bed - Cody's pillow. Since she really seemed to like her "bed" Cody decided that he could share his pillow. So, Zack and Cody went out and found everything they needed. Getting into the Tipton with a litterbox, cat food and pet shampoo was a bit of a challenge, but Zack made a big distraction while Cody ran upstairs with said kitty supplies.
The next order of business was to give Natalie a bath. That was not that easy, but Natalie did need a bath. Cody put up the shower curtain so that Natalie wouldn't try to climb it while Zack ran some warm water in the tub. Natalie meowed very loudly in protest, but there was really no help at all for it after Natalie attempted at least five times to escape her bath, she was finally clean.
"We need to get her used to baths" Zack said, holding Natalie (in a towel) over to Cody.
"Maybe. She's just a kitten, so she can probably learn to at least tolerate baths."
"Yeah, and it will keep the cat hair down so that Mom doesn't need to know we have Natalie … after the incident with Tippy, I don't think Mom would be very happy if she found out that we brought home another pet."
"Yeah … poor thing, she's shivering!"
"She'll dry off." And sure enough, Natalie started to groom herself, and was soon dry, and feeling very playful, so Zack and Cody were taking turns playing with her using an old sock.
"Does she EVER run out of energy?" asked Zack, an hour later
"Apparently not … well, not very quickly, at least"
Just then, there came a knock on the door
"Zack, Cody, are you two in there?"
AN - hope you liked it … sorry it took so long to update … please review!
