Weekly Whisker Round Up: Purrs Between the Cracks

Motron was laying stretched out on top of the ottoman with the sun beating down on his caramel belly. His laziness was contagious, and his owner, Marie, felt it was the kind of day you called in sick even when you weren’t.
After shooting a quick email to her boss, she took her time sending a few emails she couldn’t avoid and then did her nails while the cats were distracted by the birds outside the window. She took the quiet time to sort out her medicine and color a picture. Overall, the quiet day was what the sunshine ordered.

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Addison was playing a video game when she got the call. Her father had gone to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing, but they thought he would recover.
“They are treating him with antibiotics. They expect him to be out in a couple days.”
They had hung up not overly worried. But that minor incident had turned into a cascading event. Over the next two weeks, their dad had suffered set back after set back, until finally he’d suffered multiple strokes.
One morning, they gathered together and said their goodbyes. The vent was removed, and now they waited.

Princess Mittens was returning to the kingdom today. Her trip to Felinthia had been a success, and agreements with Prince Mando had gone well. All that needed to happen now was for the Prince to take the proposals to King Motron for approval.
Mittens was slightly apprehensive about that. She’d heard King Motron could be a bit territorial, and she was hoping to expand her territory. Would King Motron approve?
“Jackie! Are you done with your homework?”
Jackie looked up, startled. “Um. I was working on my cat story.”
Her mother sighed. “Your cats aren’t going anywhere. Do your homework.”

“Maybe we could use them as arrows to point people in the right direction.”
“Oh my God.”
The family group chat had taken a sudden turn from the serious to dark comedy, where sharing a picture of a penis shaved into the back of Eric’s head during his last haircut had become the center of attention.
The family was known for its dark humor in times of tragedy. When Eric’s Nana had died, there had been all kinds of jokes, from dressing up the urn to a last selfie that no one knew if it was actually floating around somewhere.

Melody sat in her recliner, her cat sleeping peacefully at her feet, remembering the day from five years ago, how Motron had reached out through the cage as though choosing her, then the strong purring, and the way they had played together.
But her stomach turned, and shame crept in. Back when Melody had been a broke college student, her roommate had adopted a kitten, and then when she had been unable to care for it, she had released it into the wild instead of taking it to a shelter. Melody hadn’t stopped her. How could she be that cruel?

Mando loved Papa. He would wait for him to come home, then he would follow him through the house to his seat, wait for him to sit down, and then jump on his lap for a long session of purring and being petted.
But one day, he began to do something different. He had a bit of a hiccup when he purred. Mama and Papa called his purr-er broken. They called the vet, who had never heard of such a thing and requested they bring him in.
Mando loved purring. But with his hiccups, he purred a little less.

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