Little Kitten

Art by Gabby

"Mrow?" the most adorable kitten vocalized as she looked up at me.

"Meow!" I responded automatically.

"Mrow?" she vocalized again.

"What do you want?" I wondered aloud.

I squatted down and, after a 'these are my hands' pause, I stroked her gray fur for a little bit. She moved and wiggled and rubbed against my hand. Her purrs vibrated against my fingers.

"Where did you come from?" I wondered some more. My inquiry was met with another purr. The kitten rubbed against my hand, its fuzz a delight against my knuckles.

"Would you like a treat?" I asked, patting my pockets as if a treat would magically appear there.

"Yes."

"Okay, sure," I answered. "I'm sure there are some treats around here somewhere."

I stood up and went to my host's kitchen. I started looking for obvious signs of treats or other cat storage on the counter-tops - I didn't want to start opening cupboards and cabinets at random. While I'm sure they wouldn't mind me looking around, I didn't feel like having the awkward 'I wasn't snooping, I swear' conversation.

As my ability to merely divine where cat treats might be stored began to inevitably fail me, I heard little scratches against a door to my left.

"Oh, there?" I asked, moving toward the cabinet. The kitten rubbed against my feet once they stopped moving.

I opened the door and, sure enough, there was a pet supply shelf that included treats. I took a couple out and held them in my palm for the kitten to eat.

She struggled with this - the treats kept slipping out of her reach and she was neither big enough to reach all the way across my hand nor small enough to climb up into my hand and eat them that way. After a moment of trying this method, she sat on the kitchen tile and looked up at me.

"Mrow?" she vocalized.

I dumped the treats in front of her and, after a moment of pushing them around, she was able to gt them into her mouth and scarf them down. I petted her gently with the back of my fingers for a few more moments before all the squatting down started to get to my knees.

"Okay kitten, I should probably get back to the party," I said, standing up. She made a couple more circles around my feet before going back to whatever she had been doing prior. I went out to the back patio, a little self-conscious about taking such a long 'bathroom break' and oversharing about meeting the kitten to preempt any discussion on that topic. Not that any of my friends would make note of a long bathroom break, but when one is self-conscious, one can make up some pretty dumb scenarios.

The rest of the party went well and wound down after another hour or so.

It was a nice night, so I walked home, replaying conversations in my head. I was about a block away from my house when I had the realization.

Did that cat say "yes"?