The next morning, Alaina's parents came to the house to pick up the girls for a day of fun. This was the second time that they have visited since we came back to Austin. The first time was a teary reunion. I was bombarded by waves of guilt, being reminded of how much pain I had caused Alaina and her family. Today, though it was a much happier event, they were taking a trip to the Exploratorium and then they'll take the girls to the mall for some shopping and snacks. We all left the house together.
Alaina placed me in the carrier before taking me out of the house. She even placed a squeaky toy in the carrier to keep up appearances. It was actually fun, so I continuously pressed on the toy while we walked out to the car.
She placed me in the passenger side and buckled me in. As she was tightening the seat belt, she threatened. "If you don't stop that I will turn around and place your back in the house."
I chuckled and stopped.
As she drove off, she told me that she would be going into work first and then around noon, we would be going to the house. She warned again that I was now a cat and that I should act like one. And if I acted out, I would be placed back into the car for the remainder of the day.
We arrived at her work and as we walked in a co-worker stopped her near the lunchroom and asked her about her vacation to California. I heard Alaina make up some story about visiting the Golden Gate Bridge and Chinatown. As soon as she was able to get away, she bolted to her desk. She placed the carrier under the desk and started her day.
After an hour of sitting quietly under the table I got bored and started to play with the squeaky toy. The squeaking must have alerted the co-workers because a few people started to gather around her desk and asked her if she had a cat or dog in the carrier. She answered a cat then bent down to retrieve the carrier but before lifting me, she whispered, "Behave."
She placed the carrier on top of the desk and opened it. I just sat inside for a while until she reached in to bring me out. She carried me on to her lap and I sat quietly, swooshing my tail back and forth to indicate that I was happy. She started petting me and I purred in agreement.
Then everyone wanted to hold me, so I got passed along to this person and that person. By the fourth one, I hissed a bit to tell them that I wanted to be placed back down. The person holding me was surprised and dropped me. Thank goodness as a cat I always land on my feet. I strutted back to Alaina, who quickly scooped me up and placed me back in the carrier.
After that excitement, the rest of the morning went by quickly as I slept in the carrier after that ordeal. I awoke to find that I needed to eliminate my bowels. So, I hissed to get Alaina's attention.
She poked her head down under the table and whispered, "What?"
I whispered back, "I need the bathroom."
Irritated, she asked, "Where am I going to find you a litter box?"
"Not a litter box, the bathroom," I stated.
"Okay." she said as she scooped up the carrier and brought it down the hall to the bathrooms.
When we reached the bathroom, she checked to see if anyone else was in the stalls. As there was no one she spoke naturally. "What should I do now?"
"Open the carrier," I demanded.
She did and I jumped over to the toilet and squatted over it. When I was about done, I shivered, and that motion caused one of my paws to slip from the seat and it touched the water below.
"Ewe!" I screamed.
"What happened," she walked over to take a look. She laughed at the sight of a cat squatting on the toilet and immediately took out her phone to take a photo.
"Stop that," I said irritated. "My foot touched." I tried to flick it off and it splattered.
"Stop that, you are going to get that on me," Alaina complained.
I stopped, and said, "Fine, could you bring me to the sink to wash my paw?"
She placed her phone back in her pocket and lifted me at arm's length to avoid any of it accidentally getting on her clothes. She then plopped me in the sink. The water automatically turned on and ran down my back.
"Ah!" I immediately jumped out and shook all the water off my fur.
"Hey, stop that." she screamed, as Alaina tried to block the water from getting on her with her hands.
I turned around, sat down and I glared up at her.
She started chuckling and with a playful expression, she said, "Okay, let's do this right." She took some towels and dried off my back. When that was done, she picked me up and held me with one arm under my armpits and this time only placed that one paw into the water. She got some soap and washed my paw for me. When she was done, she got more towels and started drying off that paw. She threw away the towels when it was dry. She then held me up close to her face and she took a selfie. Afterwards, she placed me back into the carrier, and said, "There. All done."
She closed the carrier and lifted it up to look inside. My face burned, if I was in my human form, she would have seen it. "Thank you," I said embarrassed.
"You're welcome," she said back and started heading back to her desk. She glanced at her watch as she was walking and said to herself, "It's almost time." So instead of sitting back down, she told her co-worker where she was going and then gathered her stuff and headed to the car.
On the way there I asked her, "Why don't you call the police to escort you? It might get dangerous if you do find something there."
"It is alright, I can protect myself. Anyways, I am still hoping that you are wrong," she stated.
We drove in silence the rest of the way.
She stopped the car in the driveway of this small brown house. It was no bigger than the farmhouse. It had a porch area and like the farmhouse it had two windows, one on each side of the door.
As she prepared to step out of the car, she once again said that I needed to remain a cat and not do anything surprising.
I agreed.
She walked up to the porch area, it wasn't big, but it was neat. There was even a little toddler toy slide on one side. She pressed the doorbell and soon a petite woman came to the door. "Oh, Mrs. Katz. What brings you here today?" she asked.
I secretly was happy that she kept her married name.
"You know that we are required to do surprise inspections," Alaina answered. "May I come in?"
"Oh, of course. Come on in." she answered.
"Mrs. Johnson, where is Cameron? Alaina asked.
"Oh, he was just playing in his room, I'll go get him," she said, and she walked into the adjacent room.
As she left the room, I took the chance to tell Alaina to let me out. I smelled something strange in the kitchen and I wanted to check it out. She said to be careful.
I jumped out the carrier and headed straight to the kitchen. I pushed open the swinging door and let myself in. All at once the stench caught me, the smell was overpowering to my sensitive feline senses. I knew this smell though, it was a mixture of animal feces and blood, it was mixed with the strong smell of Pine Sol disinfectant that was everywhere in the kitchen.
I walked carefully over to under the table. It would be the most likely area where the blood and feces smell were coming from. I checked the tiles by tapping on it with my paw. I found that each of the nine, twelve-inch tiles under the table were very loose and it sounded hollow underneath. I picked at it with my paw. I was finally able to lift it up a bit and the stench definitely got stronger. I was about to use magic to help me lift it when I heard a door open and footsteps. So I quickly dropped the tile and ran back out to Alaina. I jumped on her lap just in time for Mrs. Johnson and Cameron to step back into the living room.
"Hi, Cameron. How are you today?" Alaina asked as she held on to me with one hand.
A small timid voice said, "Hello." He hid behind Mrs. Johnson.
"No need to be shy, I brought my cat with me today. Would you like to pet him?" Alaina asked.
I saw Cameron, pause and then nod his head. "Okay, come on over." Alaina waved for Cameron to approach. Cameron stretched out his hand and Alaina guided him to stroke down my back.
Alaina then placed me down on the couch and told Cameron to continue to play with me as she grabbed a clipboard from her purse. She then said, "Mrs. Johnson, please excuse me while I complete the rest of the house inspection."
With that she left us and started checking off the things that she observed in the house. First, she walked into Cameron's room and then the bathroom and lastly, the kitchen.
It did not take her long and soon she was back out. She sat down and placed me back on her lap.
She asked Mrs. Johnson about the scratch on Cameron's arm and Mrs. Johnson told her the same story that she had told the Speech Therapist. After asking a few more questions and talking with Cameron for a bit, she placed me back into the carrier.
She thanked Mrs. Johnson and we left.