Chapter 11 November - Candace & Willoughby
NOVEMBER: CANDACE instead, holding him closer.
His heart was going to beat out of his chest. Surely they could overlook a couple of badly placed “accidents” of his.
He ate too fast. He may even admit that there were too many snacks.
Not that this was remotely the issue. But if his choice was to give up the occasional nosh or stay with his human, snacks stood no chance.
To his horror, Magdalene set him down after another squeeze, and he nearly fainted at her next words.
“Okay, maybe I will miss him a little.”
He had somehow displeased Cat Jesus. Willoughby gave out his most pitiful meow, but said deity was implacable, and Magdalene continued with her packing.
This was it; his life was over. And then…
“Don’t worry, Sir Willoughby. We won’t send you to one of those silly hotels. Instead, you’ll have one hell of a babysitter while we’re on vacation.”
Initially, all he heard was vacation, and that faint feeling returned, this time in relief.
He knew what that meant. They would go away for a few weeks.
He’d stay with Joanne or Ceridwen, who once saved him from the storm when he wandered around the fish market for too long.
She was nice. She had gentle hands and kind eyes. Her pantry had treats. He liked her.
Any of the women would spoil him rotten and respect his rules of zero touching.
Then his humans would come back with more cuddles and tasty things than even he could handle–but handle them he would because they’d feel guilty, and who was he to deny them the opportunities to work off some of that well-deserved guilt?
He was already savoring sleeping on Magdalene’s pillow—something he had done only once and only after she had returned from a particularly lengthy conference—when the other keyword in the sentence registered.
Babysitter…
Heartbreak forgotten, disgust took its place. And of all the humiliating possibilities they could have unleashed on a magnificently independent and fierce creature such as himself, being left with a babysitter was by far the absolute worst!
He was Willoughby, former Mouser-in-Chief of Three Dragons Academy; his name struck fear in all the town cats, and pupils used to cower against the walls when he’d pass them in the hallways. And he was being left with a babysitter.
Tail held high, Willoughby was about to leave the room when the front door to the house opened with a bang and a screech.
“My baaaaaaby!”
The vision was decked in fuchsia and smelled vaguely familiar, as if Magdalene had been soaked in gin and clouds of powdery perfume. He was caught like a deer in the headlights when bony hands reached for him and enveloped him in a crushing hug.
Willoughby winced and thought what a cat’s heaven was possibly like.
“You’re going to hurt him.” Magdalene tsked disapprovingly but did not come to his rescue.
“Hurt him?” The fuchsia boa-wearer lifted him up over her head, then brought him nose to nose with her. “Nonsense! Since this is more likely than not the only baby I shall ever be regaled with by the two of you, I will treasure every moment I get to spend with him.”
In his peripheral vision, he saw Sam smile fondly.
He disliked her very much at that moment.
The powdery person was breaking all the rules.
Nobody touched him! Any second now, Willoughby decided, he’d take one well-aimed swipe at her gaudily manicured hands, and then he would be set free.
And Sam knew better than to allow people—even this particular person—to lift him like this–and to have the gall to smile at it.
“Candace, you can say ‘grandchild’, you know.”
“I may be her mother, Samantha, my darling girl, but I am nobody’s grandmother, even if you two girls give me five non-furry ones.”
Willoughby was beginning to have a very bad feeling about this entire thing. The eyebrow lifted again, and his premonition intensified. That sensation of faintness returned tenfold. Was it too late to hide himself in one of those bags?
Desperate, Willoughby tried to hiss and wiggle out of the iron grip.
“Now, now, young man. You and I are going to have so much fun!”
Magdalene looked concerned. Good, she should be! Why wouldn’t she just leave him with Joanne? Ceridwen? He really liked her. He knew Magdalene really liked her, too. She made flower bouquets that were cat-friendly. He knew because he chewed on some of them. Okay, most of them.