A Toby the Cat Special: The Newcomer
Toby was agitated. There was something wrong. It had been wrong since last night, since Mummy had left with Blondie. She hadn't even filled up Toby's bowls before she left, and now they were both empty. They had been for hours. Not even Tall Man had come home, as he usually did late at night. Toby didn't know when anyone would be coming back, and it made him anxious. He patrolled the windowsill, watching and waiting, letting out the occasional mew.
Finally there were steps on the stairs, though not those of Mummy or Tall Man. It was the older woman from downstairs, he had heard her come out of her flat. He ran to the top of the stairs, ears back excitedly, and started mewing at the older woman to get attention. As she reached the top of the stairs, he weaved in and out of her legs, still mewing, though careful not to trip her. The old woman chuckled at his antics, and obediently followed him to fill up his bowls, before moving on and doing various other activities around the house. Toby didn't particularly care what she was up to, now he had food. He nibbled up the biscuits eagerly, before moving greedily onto the water, lapping it up like he hadn't drank for days. Once his hunger and thirst were satisfied, curiosity got the better of him, and he went to investigate what the older woman was up to.
She was upstairs. In the rarely used room, with the always-shut door. Toby had been up here once since they had moved into this house, when they had first arrived. The room had been empty of furnishings, but full of scents. The scents of Short Man and Blondie, whose scents had been all over this house when they arrived. Now the room was full of white furnishings and other small soft objects, that all smelt of 'new'. He vaguely remembered Mummy coming home with various new items over the past few months and briefly disappearing upstairs with them. And here they all were, ready for him to explore.
He walked around the edge of the room first, cataloguing the items, and rubbing against those he liked. When he reached the little bed with the cage around it, he leapt over the bars easily, padding around to test the softness of the mattress. Apparently it wasn't for him though, as the old lady lifted him out, and shooed him away. He ran towards the door, stopping in the entrance and checking to see if she was still watching. She wasn't. It was safe to carry on exploring then; just not in the little bed.
Toby's ears pricked as he heard the door downstairs open and close, shortly followed by Tall Man's voice calling up the stairs, followed by a quiet rebuke from Mummy.
Toby flew down both flights of stairs, greeting his humans enthusiastically. It didn't take long for him to sniff out something that wasn't right though. There was the smell of another human with them, but he couldn't see anyone else. But it was there. In the tiny bundle of clothes in Mummy's arms.
A Baby Human.
The older woman followed down the stairs, though it took her much longer than Toby had. She talked excitedly with Mummy and Tall Man, fussing over the bundle in Mummy's arms, all of them completely ignoring Toby. When they carried on upstairs, they continued to ignore Toby, and didn't give him a thought as they carried on, up to the room of new, taking the baby inside and shutting Toby out.
Feeling rather snubbed, Toby held his head high, gave his paw a couple of licks, and stalked away down the stairs. They would come back to him, in their own time. This newcomer wouldn't drive him away.
AN: Don't worry, this isn't quite the end, like the other Toby Special. But as my editor reminded me, it has been a while since Toby had a chance to tell his story, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity :) Hope you enjoyed.
Sorry about not giving personal replies to all your reviews last time, there was rather a delightfully large quantity of them, but thank you very much to all of you. Glad you liked the name. :)