On the second-to-last day of October, I picked up Car Car and brought him home.
Car Car is a cat. He inherited the fur color of a British Shorthair Blue Cat, but he doesn't have the same stocky body. On his sharp and thin face, there are melancholic eyes with a hint of dirtiness, as if declaring his past as a stray. When we went to see him, he huddled in a corner of the cage, his ears pressed tightly against his head, baring his teeth, wide-eyed, with our blurry figures reflected in his pupils. Akang tried to tease him with his finger, but this action was met with his fierce resistance, ending with Akang's finger bleeding.
The caretaker, Xiaopang, told us that he had just been brought here not long ago, about three months old, and had been a stray before. In the same cage, there was also his brother who was brought here together, a cow-patterned cat. He was the same, gripping the ground with his claws, looking at us in fear.
We hesitated for a long time. Akang really liked the cow-patterned cat, but I saw Car Car's eyes. I didn't know what words to use to accurately describe the look in his eyes at that time. It was like walking in the deep darkness of mist, with flickering streetlights and faint sounds trailing behind.
"I like this cat," I said to Akang.
Akang hesitated for a few minutes, and she seemed to be more interested in the calico and tabby cats, who were kept in cages opposite Car Car. Compared to Car Car and his brother who were just captured, they seemed to be more well-behaved after spending some time at the adoption center.
"I like this blue cat. Can we adopt him?" I said to Akang again, "If you really want a calico or tabby cat, I can accept it too."
"I'll listen to you," Akang thought for a while and said to me.
I breathed a sigh of relief, but also felt a little guilty.
"If you want to adopt this cat, you have to be careful," Xiaopang said, extending his arm to show us the fresh scratches, "When he was brought here last night, he scratched me several times. He's a bit afraid of people."
Akang and I looked at each other and felt that we could accept it. I had experience taking care of stray cats in the village when I was a child, so I wasn't that afraid. Akang, on the other hand, couldn't wait to have her own kitten.
"We'll take him then, is that okay?"
"Of course, but you may have to wait for a while," Xiaopang said, walking out of the cat room, "They were just brought here last night, so we need to examine them and give them their first vaccination. If there are no health issues, you can come and complete the adoption process."
"What do we need to prepare in advance?" we followed up and asked.
"Prepare cat food, cat litter, litter box, food and water bowls, and don't forget to bring a cat carrier when you come to pick him up."
Saying that, Xiaopang suddenly remembered and looked at us seriously, "Remember to keep him in the cage after you get home, let him adapt."
Naturally, we agreed and then arranged to contact each other on WeChat before saying goodbye. Before leaving, a calico cat from their place jumped onto the box and came to us.
"Do you think our cat will be as well-behaved?" Akang touched her and asked me.
"Maybe," I didn't dare to guarantee, hesitatingly replied.
In less than two days, Xiaopang notified me that we could schedule a time to pick up the cat. So on the second-to-last day of October, on a sunny day, I carried the newly bought cat carrier and took Car Car from Xichuankou to our home in Fengsiji.
When I got home, Akang hadn't returned yet. I put Car Car in the cat cage. It was a large cage made of mesh panels bought from a hundred-yen store. It was about 80 centimeters tall and occupied about one square meter of space. I laid thick cardboard and pet pads on the bottom, placed a litter box on top, and also laid a soft blanket on the side (a selfless contribution from Akang). It turned out that the litter box and litter were a mistake, which will be mentioned later.
As soon as I put him in, Car Car crawled into the litter box, which had an arched lid, and seemed to treat it as a safe hiding place.
I wanted to lure him out, but he was very cautious in the unfamiliar environment. So I came up with an idea. I went out to the nearest drugstore and bought several packs of liquid food for cats, then opened one pack and poured it into a small dish, placing it at the entrance of the cage. At first, he didn't want to come out, but perhaps due to exhaustion from the journey and not having eaten much, he convinced himself and cautiously stuck his head out to sniff the dish.
It seemed very fragrant.
He slowly crawled out halfway, leaned his head over, and licked a few mouthfuls, then nervously hurried back in.
After observing for a while, he seemed to calm down a bit, and finally stuck his head out again, this time obediently licking the dish clean. I sat cross-legged on the bed, not daring to move, just watching him finish licking, feeling a bit tired, so I lay down and dozed off.
It was a little after 5 o'clock in the afternoon. In late October, the sky turned dark around 5 o'clock, and only a little light came through the French windows and shone on the blanket through the mesh of the cat cage. I lay sprawled on the bed, with our cat at my feet, and fell asleep like that.