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[OOC For Jaden and DeeCee.]

[Copied over from PM thread]

Jayden

Jayden never particularly cared for cats or dogs or pets of any kind, but he had accepted a commission from a nationwide chain of pet groomers to amp up their web sites. Working on the premise of maybe working up some before and after type images, he decided to look for some "before" shots at the local animal shelter.

That's where he met her (saw her, he kept telling himself, but it felt more like he met her, like she was talking to him). It was those blue eyes, maybe, he decided and then firmly put her out of his mind as he left the shelter with a series of digital pictures.

Unfortunately, she only stayed out of his mind for about 37 seconds or thereabout and, the next day, he found himself making a ridiculous excuse to revisit the animal shelter.

No one could have been more surprised than himself when he left with her.

[Then later at Jayden's apartment]

Jayden leaned back in his desk chair and looked ceilingward for a long moment and shook his head. For the life of him he couldn't get a feel for this damned pet grooming job. As far as he was concerned, the cats looked exactly the same before and after.

"Damn cats," he muttered and, almost immediately felt a prickle on the back of his neck. He swiveled in his chair and there it was, the blue eyed kitten looking up at him, its head cocked to one side, a disapproving look on its face.

Cat's can't have approving or disapproving looks he thought. Cat's don't do expressions.

"Nothing personal, cat," he said and turned back to the laptop. He picked up a small steno pad and read through some of his notes, and them read them again and then realized he had no idea what he'd just read.

Again that feeling on the back of his neck. Jayden turned slowly and it was staring up at him again.

"What do you want?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the kitten turned and skittered into the kitchen. Muttering, Jayden got up and followed the cat, finding it standing beside the aluminum foil litter tray.

"Oh... that." He scooped out a couple of slightly noisome clumps and added a little fresh litter to the tray.

"There now, you happy?"

He could swear the kitten smiled at him and he rolled his eyes again. I'm losing my f****** mind, he thought and headed for his recliner, sat and leaned it back all the way.

Jayden had no idea why he'd bought the little cat. Seventy-eight dollars it had cost him and he wasn't at all flush at the moment. Then he'd bought cat food at which the cat immediately turned up its little pink nose (he'd bought two more brands before little-miss-princess would deign to eat from her little pink bowl). Then he arranged a little cat door in one of the windows (he raised the window about twelve inches, taped heavy cardboard on either side of the opening and then tacked a piece of leather between the two sideguards so she could leave and return when she wanted). Even with the cat door, however, she'd only do her business outside when the weather was perfect.

"Damn cat," he muttered and nodded off, only to wake up about an hour later to find her coiled high on his chest, eyes closed, buzzing contentedly.

Jayden reached for her, planning to grab her by the scruff of the neck and throw her out into the middle of the room but, just as he moved his hand, she opened her big blue eyes and he found himself rubbing her fur between her ears, back and down to her shoulder blades.

"Damn cat," he said softly, thinking he really should come up with a name to replace damn cat.

Tiger-Lily

Having finally captured his attention and persuaded him to clean the litter tray, though that was a border-line clean in her opinion, she realises that this burden probably requires an intense training regime and starts to work out what she might do.

As always she takes time and trouble with her toilet, making sure she covers every trace, then daintly shakes eat of her paws as she steps off the tray. A final inspection with her nose and she is happy, sitting down to wash and groom herself.

Then she wanders back into the main room to look for her trainee.

He is asleep.

Well she needs to be around for when he wakes, meanwhile she might as well be warm and comfortable. With an easy grace, she lightly jumps up onto the chair and then daintily walks to the warmest comfort spot, pads the surface smooth and settles down with a light purr, content with the easy rise and fall of her surface, lulling her to sleep.

A little while later she comes back to consciousness with him pleasantly scratching her and back. In order to encourage her trainee, she rubs her head on his hand and purrs her approval but also angling her head so that he can rub the sides of her face also, a favourite spot.

Jayden

"So that's what you want, DeeCee," he grumbled, but softly, and began stroking the sides of her face, stroking back from her mouth toward her ears, one side and then the other and, when she lifted her chin slightly, also lightly rubbing her throat, down from chin to her upper chest.

"Well, hell, I'd probably like it if someone did it for me, too," he said and chuckled.

Tiger-Lily/DC

She puts extra effort into her purrs and her head butting to give positive feedback to her young trainee. And after all he is doing quite a good job. Now she has to see how long he can sustain it for.

It generally takes a while she understands to train a burden in his duties and older ones seem to learn more quickly and have more patience.

Time will tell.

Jayden


"Well, that's enough for the moment," he said, taking his hand from her neck, putting it under her chest and giving a tentative little lift.

"You need to get down now. I've got to get some work done some time today."

She didn't move though, merely arching her back in response to his gesture.

"Okay, DC, I'll give you a couple minutes more and that's all."

Jayden resumed rubbing her cheeks with thumb and forefinger.

Tiger-Lily/DC

She feels a small amount of satisfaction. He is responding to training. That is good.. and the stroking is good too.

She understands that he wants to move but it is also important that he understands that moving is her choice. So after another minute, she rises, stretches gracefully and jumps down, heading for that sun spot in the window.

Jayden


He cocked his head to one side and shook his head as he watched her bottle brush of a tail waggling back and forth as she went to sun herself.

Jayden snorted sardonically and got to his feet, stretching side to side a couple of times and then making his way to his desk where he opened his laptop and powered it up.

While it was booting up, he swiveled in his office chair and looked at the little cat, again shaking his head.

"Damn cat..."

The laptop boots with a string of news headlines rolling across the top as he is delivered his digital dose. The one that floats to the top talks about the upcoming celebrations for Halloween. Warnings about razor blades in apples, arsenic in candy that sort of fear mongering.

The next discusses the history of the commercialized pagan ritual. From its origins to modern day interpretations. Right down to the thinking of the borders between the realms of the living and the dead. One pundit even notes how in history certain rituals were favored on such a night because of the ability of these powers to interact.

Then it got more normal talking about the different stock markets. How on the Japanese market Wang was up again.

Jayden


Turning back from the cat - his cat! - to the laptop as it beeped a couple of times, Jayden frowned at some of the headlines that streamed across the screen. Was this news?

He checked to make sure it was his normal news feed source and it was... or appeared to be but it didn't seem like news or not like real news to him.

Pagan rituals? Realms of living and dead? Jayden leaned back in his seat and rolled his eyes briefly ceilingward. The whole world was going crazy. He leaned back forward in his seat and looked at the cat.

"Yeah, you, too," he muttered and turned back to his laptop as the stock highlights flowed past.

Tiger-Lily/DC

She has found a sun spot on the ledge and is sitting in the middle of it, warming nicely and washing her face. She enjoys the ritual and always likes to keep her whiskers clean.

As he speaks, she instictively knows that he is talking to her and looks up, pausing for a moment, before resuming her wash.

Burdens did make such strange sounds.

Jayden


Excepting when she was asleep, it seemed that every time he looked at her, she was looking at him and this bothered Jayden. Well, almost every thing about her bothered him.

Was she always looking at him or only when he was looking at her.

And what difference did it make? Why was he wasting his time worrying about a damn cat when he was so behind on his work.

"Damn cat," he muttered as he opened his favorite graphics program and started back to work on the pet groomer web site.

Tiger-Lily/DC

And there is that sound again. Soft. She doesn't understand it but it must be a term of endearment. She purrs contentedly and moves around in a circle to find the exact position, whereupon she settles down facing him, her eyes closing but one staying partially open.

She is on guard after all.

Jayden


Glancing at her from time to time and never catching her not glancing back, he went back to work and, after thirty or so minutes, he ended up with a graphics arrangement he didn't hate too bad.

"Not bad, Cat," he murmured. "I've seen better, but not too bad."

Tiger-Lily/DC

In response to his words, she stands, stretches front her front paws, through her back to the tip of her tail. And then settles down again in almost the exact same position.

Jayden


"Oh, you think so, too?" he said with a brief laugh.

"You've got better taste than I thought, Cat," he continued, then stood and stretched (much like she had although he didn't realize it) and went to the kitchen where he poured a little milk in a saucer and took it back to her where she lay in the sunlight.

"I suppose you deserve a reward for... well, for something."

Jayden went back to his desk chair and contemplated his work.

In the corner of his screen the news ticker flashed by. "Boy missing in the woods. Town rallies for search. " Another rolls by "wild kennel escape. All the animals escaped from the SPCA kennel last night." So much for local news.

Jayden


The news banner caught his attention and he frowned as he concentrated on the screen, tapping the eraser end of his pencil on his desk.

"That's weird. Bad about the boy," he mumbled to himself, "but [I]all the animals?"

Jayden glanced over at the cat and shrugged.

"Your friends arrange a remake of The Great Escape?"

Tiger-Lily/DC

At the moment she is more interested in her treat and with her usual caution she moves to it, sniffs, walks around it, sniffs again and then dips her tongue once. Hmmm.. she remembers this from when she was a kitten with Miss Amy.

Settling down in a crouch, she laps contentedly, watching her burden from time to time as he is making noises again.

Jayden


He watched her take her tiny laps of the milk from the saucer, then chuckled when she apparently got a little up her nose and sneezed. Then he turned back to his laptop and tried to track down more information about the missing boy and escaping animals.

[OOC: What is the time difference between the two threads the damn cat is in?]

[OOC Not sure Ex.. maybe Pande can enlighten us? ]

[OOC: Figure the animal escape was last night, but a few nights after DC was brought into the house. As far as the boy, was about a week ago. And further research says he hasn't been located yet.]

[OOC: If the animal escape was last night, now you've got me wondering what DC did with her little camp follower. ]

Jayden


Wondering if he should volunteer to help with the search for the missing boy, Jayden did some background checking on his circumstances.

The boy who's name is actually difficult to locate, went missing just about eight days ago. It was a night of a full moon. That of course got bandied about. Heck in a few weeks All Hallow's Eve would fall on yet another full moon.

The boy who's first name was Peter had been playing out in the woods by a stream with his younger sister. The sister remembered falling asleep by the brook but when she woke later he was gone.

Jayden


Relatively new to the area, Jayden was not all that familiar with the woods in the area. He did a little deeper search to try and find out about the little stream and that area of the woods and how far it might be from where he and the damn cat lived.

[OOC: There is a map of Silver Ford in the gallery. Just outside of town, up hill a bit. Blue Moon Woods.]

Jayden


Once he'd picked up a few details from various news reports, Jayden pulled up a map of the area and quickly spotted Blue Moon Woods.

"Not all that far... east, maybe northeast of here," he mused and then turned to face the damn cat.

"You want to go exploring, Dizzy?"

Damn Cat... DC... Dizzy - it seemed to make sense to him.

Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

Her burden is trying to communicate again with those odd sounds. Still he is making an effort. The catnip and the water hose. Both have their uses but a little catnip might be applied here.

She raises her head and makes an agreeable chirruping noise.

Jayden


He stood, stretched and then went to get the cat carrier but then paused and stared at his feline burden for a long moment.

"You don't like going in this cage, do you?"

Curious, he picked up his keys and headed for the door, gesturing for her to follow, wondering if she would.

"C'mon, let's go for a ride."