Wysh and the cats of Forty-or-one

These short stories are written as practices in writing and all are unedited and are not proofread

It started quite normal, almost average in a sense, Wysh had gone to get a new family member from the nearest adoption agency. Upon arrival she was shocked to find that most of the younger cats had already been adopted, with the two that remained being too sick to take immediately.

You see, the trip to the agency was a long walk and Wysh had no desire to make it a second time when they had enough kittens available. Instead, upon some advice from the staff there, she went to take a look at some of the older cats that were kept in the back of the agency. 

The first one she saw had a missing eye and seemed to be unwilling to approach her, preferring to stay in the back of the cage. The second, third, fourth, all the way up to the tenth all were playful and loving, each having been abandoned after their owners moved. 

She was tempted by each, but still felt a disconnected, something wasn’t quite right, like these would not get along with her own cats. Instead, she stopped at cage number eleven, the last cage the agency had, the only cage that also seemed to be falling apart. As if the cage was related to the oldest parts of the agency, not entirely meant to be used for younger cats. 

Inside this broken cage was a black and white cat, with no real way to tell if he was white with black splotches or black with white splotches. He stared at Wysh through the bent bars of the cage and meowed ever so softly, barely audible above the sounds of the rest of the place. 

The agent that followed her opened the cage, looking rather confused, and Wysh was surprised to find that the surprisingly small cat slowly peaked out. With careful movements she brushed and petted the cat, picking it up and holding it close. The cat nuzzled into her chest, and gently started kneading her arms. 

To say that it was an instant connection would be an understatement, Wysh took the cat with her to the front of the agency. Where she quickly signed the right papers and learned that his name is Mr. Fizzle, and odd name for a cat. No one could tell her where he had been before or even how old the cat was. 

The trip back to her house was uneventful, the cat meowed a few times at passing animals, but never seemed to be too worried or stressed. Later, if pressed, Wysh would note that no other cat seemed to even notice them, which is abnormal as other cats are usually curious about strange ones being kept in cages. 

But as we said, the trip back home was uneventful and upon walking through the door Wysh was pleased to see that Aet had moved the other two cats into the bedroom. There they would not be a problem while Mr. Fizzle got introduced to the house and everything in it. And introduce himself to everything he thoroughly did not do. 

Instead, Wysh and Aet kept an eye on Mr. Fizzle as he slowly walked around the apartment and found his way to the bedroom. From the other side meowing could be heard and after leaving the three cats to meow at each other for nearly 30 minutes it was decided an introduction could not be avoided. 

Aet snuck into the room first, and grabbed both cats in his arms while Wysh picked up Mr Fizzle. Opening the door the two owners were shocked to find that there was no hissing, no furs being raised, only pleasant meowing from all cats involved. 

Gingerly Wysh put Mr Fizzle down on the bed and took one cat away from Aet, allowing him to put his down on the opposite side. To their shock their youngest cat simply walked up to Mr Fizzle, and they rubbed their cheeks against each other. Finding the cats almost purring as they got to know each other. 

Wysh put down her cat and the same thing happened, soon all three had made themselves at home on the bed. Seemingly being perfectly content with each other, almost as if they had all known each other for years. Aet seemed elated and quickly left the room, apparently there was something that he was late for. 

Wysh stayed with the three cats for a while longer and upon sitting on the bed, all three swarmed her, cuddling up and being rather affectionate. She pondered on the strangeness of the situation but as time went on, she decided cats are too difficult to ever properly understand. 

The rest of the evening went by without problem, the cats even happily asked for food and the next morning Wysh found herself not being awoken by cats on her chest. Instead, all three were in the kitchen, patiently and quietly waiting for their food to be served. 

Through the following week all three cats continued being entirely normal, and even kept the areas around their litter boxes clean. Something that was not all that normal, Wysh kept an eye on their interactions, and was pleased to find that all the cats seemed more at peace than ever before. 

However, on the eight day of owning Mr Fizzle, Wysh returned home to find two strange cats sitting outside her apartment door. Both seemed to be very obviously abandoned cats, with one sparking recognition within Wysh. She could have sworn she had seen it inside the apartment hallways until those loud tenants in number 13 moved out. 

She kept an eye on them both as she unlocked the door and went in, deciding to put some food out for both. Neither tried to sneak into her house, but she did find Mr Fizzle right inside the apartment, looking at her with big eyes that seemed imploring. 

With a sigh she grabbed a can of tuna and some dry cat food, mixing it all together she fed her own cats first. Mr Fizzle followed her outside as she put two small plates down for the stray cats, both meowing in thanks and almost seeming to bow before eating. 

Satisfied Mr Fizzle snuck back into the house and joined his two siblings, enjoying the treat of fish and now wet cat kibble. Wysh noted the odd occurrence to Aet and he confirmed that earlier when he gave the cats lunch there were two other cats waiting outside the apartment. 

Finding it strange but not worth worrying about both sighed and started working on their own dinner. Something light and easy was on the menu, with dinner being enjoyed with the whole family watching TV, Mr Fizzle and the two cats somehow watching and reacting along with Wysh and Aet. 

Without warning or seemingly any worry this became the new normal, as Wysh and Aet would put out plates of whatever was available for more cats. Each time Mr Fizzle would follow them outside, almost acting as a teacher making sure that cats are behaving as they should. 

Neither Wysh nor Aet noticed their food reserves depleting any faster, in fact, on their monthly calculations they found their cat food and tuna seemed to last impossibly long. With even some of the milk and other treats they had for the cats lasting impossibly long. 

After some head scratching it was explained away by both as them simply being more conservative with how they are giving the food. By the second month of Mr Fizzle living with them the routine of giving cats outside the apartment some food had become so normal that both Wysh and Aet could not remember a time before that. 

And so it was at the start of the third month that Wysh started cataloguing all of the cats they were feeding. And with a surprise they realized that in total there were just shy of 20 different cats showing up, morning, afternoon, and in the evening. All somehow behaved perfectly fine, all seemingly quite rough around the edges. 

For all the change Wysh and Aet were noticing, Mr Fizzle seemed to be almost too intelligent, with the cat somehow achieving things that would require thumbs. Aet had sworn that he saw Mr Fizzle changing channels on purpose, almost as if he was bored with what was showing. 

Wysh had also noticed that her own cats no longer bothered her while streaming or working, instead they would lie still or somehow move out of her way when in a rush. As for Mr Fizzle, Wysh found that he kept the spaces clean, a few times she had found him moving the beds against the wall. 

This routine continued, with the cats behaviour becoming more and more eccentric as the months passed. It was during the school holidays, with full days spent at home that both saw Mr Fizzle sneaking out of an open window. Only for a knock to come at the door a few minutes later, Aet opened the door to Mr Fizzle followed by two kittens that were dripping wet. 

Both meowed softly and Wysh was quick to insist that they’d clean them and take care of them until the could be rehomed. Mr Fizzle kept an eye on the initial washing operation but quickly disappeared when Aet started talking about giving the three larger ones a wash as well. 

Fortunately, he couldn’t escape and after a quick towelling the three big cats cuddled around the new kittens. By now it could not be denied that something was strange about Mr Fizzle, as it was strange not only to go fetch two wet kittens, but to then knock on the door to gain re-entry. 

It took only a week for both kittens to be adopted by caring neighbours, but now Wysh and Aet knew something had to be done. First Wysh called the agency and was shocked when everyone there insisted that they only had 10 cages, no one could even find the adoption papers she had signed. 

Aet did some research online, contacting a few local forums to see if anyone had experienced the strange behaviour of the cats. Apart from a few people making jokes no one could really talk about any of their cats behaving in any strange ways. 

As the end of the holidays started to approach Wysh took another survey, and was shocked to find that there were now 38 cats showing up at their door. All of them would show up in different groups, none would show up more than two days in a week, somehow finding food elsewhere. 

Even the two kittens, now growing taller, showed up from time to time, but they preferred sneaking in through the windows to join the other three. Wysh had started to note that Mr Fizzle was taking an interest in their research, having followed her when she was talking on the phone to a friend about the strange behaviour of the cats. 

After the call she grabbed Aet and they both sat staring at the strange black and white cat. To their surprise Mr Fizzle sat and stared back at them, in the same way a normal cat may do, but with some kind of meaning. 

It was Aet that finally jumped up and grabbed a pen and paper, writing down a yes and no on the paper he placed it in front of Mr Fizzle. The cat looked down at the paper and then back at his owners, both quite sure they had gone insane. 

“Now, tell us, are you really a cat?” Aet asked. 

Mr Fizzle looked at him and cocked his head to the side, and just as Wysh thought this was stupid the cat tapped the side of the paper that said yes. 

“Wait, you understand us? You can read?” Wysh asked, in mild shock. 

Again the cat tapped yes, only twice as if to indicate yes to both answers. 

Aet had gone pale, “You’re not some demon are you?” 

This time Mr Fizzle firmly tapped the no, with an almost angry look on his face. 

“Well then what are you, you’re more than a cat!” Aet answered. 

Mr Fizzle tapped on the middle of the page, as if to say both yes and no. 

Wysh came up with the next idea, “If we list things for a while will you tell us what you are?” 

Again, the cat tapped Yes. 

And so, they started listing things, trying to avoid anything too mystic or impossible. It took ten minutes for their ideas to be exhausted. It was Aet who finally shouted, “What are you then! A God?” 

This time the cat tapped the middle of the page, again seemingly to say something like that. 

Wysh perked up at the response, “A cat god then?” 

Again, the cat tapped the middle of the page, as if to say almost there. 

“So, some kind of cat god, but not the god of cats?” Aet asked. 

This time they received a resounding yes and the two were stunned into silence. Something impossible was staring at them and it seemingly looked to have all the patience in the world. 

It was Wysh who broke the silence and finally said, “Well whatever you are, forty and one cats are too many to feed. No more, understand?” 

The cat simply responded by repeatedly tapping the no side of the page.