♫The withered leaves collect at my feet♫

[hardtoignore]

Who: Clarence Blakely and OPEN

What: Clarence desires a cat... badly. Will he get one? Probably not, but a boy can dream...

When: March 16th thru the 21st (Spring Break baby)

Where: Various pet shops around the Queens area

Rating/Warnings: Teenage angst, possible mentions of Clarence's family situation

He had spent all day Sunday doing research, where within the limits of Queens he could find responsible facilities that sourced their cats from fosters. He didn't really want to go through a breeder. A cat wasn't some creature that should be bred to be sold; they were loving companions and thousands of them were born without homes daily. Those were cats that needed homes and he really, really, really wanted to give one a home.

Clarence lingered for several minutes outside the shop, looking through the windows at the rabbits displayed there as he tried to pep himself up.

The problem was he hadn't mentioned anything about it to Philemon or Kris yet. Sure, they seemed pretty chill and had even still given him the same fifty bucks to spend this week as they normally did, despite not having to go to school and buy lunch. But he couldn't just show up with a kitten. Even if he tried to hide it, cats liked to cry when they got lonely. Whatever kind of cat he picked up would eventually make some noises in his room when he wasn't there, and then it would be all over. Still...

Stepping inside the door of a known pet shop that worked with fosters, he moved along after reassuring the clerk he didn't need help. Finding the area of cats was easy. Six large kennels were set off to one side. Two contained batches of kittens, so tiny still but big enough to be adopted out. Each of the other four had an older cat in them, much more docile than the smaller groups but still in need of homes just the same.

"... they're so cute," Clarence found himself mumbling, charmed by all the sweet faces staring back at him. Heavens, but this was the hard part. Even if he decided to take one home, could he really choose just one over all the others? And as much as he liked the idea of getting a kitten, older cats were less likely to be adopted, so he would be helping out further if he got one of the bigger ones, right?

One of the adults, an orange tabby with green eyes, stared up at him sleepily. It was a male and looked quite different from the one in his dreams, but Clarence was still very tempted to ask the clerk if he could hold him.

Comments

[serpentinthegarden]

"Doctor google," Anthony smirked as he walked over to grasp the knob of the meet and greet room, "I'll do that."

It had been a pleasant first meeting, just one of a dozen small encounters one could have in a day and filled with none of the mental turmoil that might have been had if either of them realized they were one of the unusual. Anthony liked the kid and thought there was a lot of promise in a budding young artist. But, duty called. He opened the door and rejoined Grace so he could meet the two little fluff balls she had decided to adopt.