Something Something cats

[karappo]

[It had been about two weeks since he'd found himself in this shelter. There were animals of all sorts, but mostly they took in cats and dogs with cats being kept in their own area more securely inside as opposed to where the dogs were. Small cage-like kennels that they stayed in until they were adopted or fostered, this sort being a no-kill shelter.

They just had no clue, somehow, that one of the "cats" that a family had brought in to them was no cat at all.

Karamatsu would say that, overall, he didn't really mind this place too much. Sometimes it got loud and he got very lonely without his family, but it was something like an extended vacation, wasn't it? That's what they'd told him, anyway. And being too young to really understand it as anything else (while knowing his parents were too big to actually get inside such a small kennel with him), he wasn't too bothered by knowing they weren't immediately with him. After seeing his fellow kennel mates and other cats being taken away every day, it brought him to the realization that the only way to find his family again would be to get someone to take him out.

That's how Karamatsu learned to start making himself as obvious as he could, strutting in front of the cage bars and meowing as loud as he could, though...people didn't seem to react well to his attempts at being cute. He didn't meow so much as yowl, and it wasn't very appealing to prospective adopters. He had an unusual coat, too- orange/yellow with dark black stripes, white patches on his belly and neck...he was really odd for a cat.

But he wasn't going to give up. Someone would come along, if his parents didn't first.]

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[ichimyatsu]

[He was twenty-four, and he'd never lived alone in his life. He'd always had some kind of roommate, even after he moved out of his family's home (only two years prior, because of things like forgetting to eat if left alone for a weekend). And... his most recent roommate had just moved out to live with his girlfriend a week ago. He had moved spaces, into a smaller unit, because he didn't need and couldn't afford two bedrooms.]

[So there he was, Ichimatsu Matsuno, sitting in the middle of the floor of his new apartment, surrounded by boxes, overwhelmed by a sudden and uncomfortable silence.]

[Which may have been why upon first stepping into the shelter up the road he'd been drawn to the bizarre sounds coming from Karamatsu's cage, or maybe he was just concerned about this weird potentially sick cat. Sinking into a crouch in front of the cage, he immediately recognized the problem, and called over the elderly attendant. "You know this is a tiger cub, right?" "What? Don't be silly, we had him relinquished by a nice family two weeks ago, he's just a noisy tabby!" "No, that's definitely a tiger." The argument went around in slow circles for a while until the attendant just laughed and told Ichimatsu to believe what he wanted and have a good time, and let him know if he needed help with anything. This left a one sour droopy-eyed young man turning a bland frown back on Karamatsu.]

You're a fucking tiger, and that old man is an idiot.

[ichimyatsu]

[It's been a few weeks. Karamatsu is rapidly outgrowing Ichimatsu's small apartment, and he's starting to get noticeably anxious about it. In the form of, he's not a very cluttered person (largely because he doesn't have much to clutter) but he has been neurotic about cleaning every time he comes home. He's started devoting about an hour upon arrival to scrubbing down both the bathroom and kitchen.]

[As such, it's been about forty-five minutes since he got home and he slumps to sit in the tiny space of the bathroom, purple kitchen gloves to his elbows and hair mussed beyond its usual state of endearingly unkempt. He drops his head backward and grumbles at the ceiling, calling out to his feline roommate.]

...Karamatsu, we're gonna have to move.