Pet King

Snowball slipped out of Snowy’s arms and walked towards the cat carrier curiously. It had heard a slight pur inside the cat carrier. It had a cat’s scent, but the sound was different than a regular cat. Its curious nature urged it to find out where the sound came from.

“Meow.”

However, a black-and-white kitten stopped it on the way. It had to stop and examine it to see if the kitten was hostile.

It didn’t see when the black-and-white kitten had showed up. It seemed to have appeared all of a sudden.

Snowball was not timid. Even facing Good-for-Nothing, a dog much bigger than itself, it fought bravely. Since Fina was there, however, it couldn’t do anything it wanted.

The black-and-white kitten didn’t seem like it intended to attack. Instead, it lifted a front paw and waved at it, as if it was greeting and asking Snowball to follow it.

Snowball looked at the cat carrier, then looked at the black-and-white kitten, wondering which one was more interesting.

“White kitty, black-and-white kitty…” Yue Yue waddled over and spoke unclearly with a grin on her face.

Snowball looked back at Yue Yue––it was that look that made it lose its advantage.

A furry paw tapped on its head gently. It turned its head back again and saw that the black-and-white kitten had gone up the shelf, as fast as smoke.

Snowball was furious after it was tricked. It left the cat carrier alone and dashed towards the black-and-white kitten, but the kitten was so fast and flexible, and it knew the place really well. It circled around the shelves in “eight” shape. Sometimes it slipped under the shelves, making Snowball’s chase very exhausting.

Yue Yue made a turn, and followed Snowball to the shelves.

Liu Wenying glanced and raised her voice. “Yue Yue, be careful not to hit yourself.”

Yue Yue turned her head and said with a bright smile. “White kitty. Black-and-white kitty…”

The girl was so obsessed with Ragdolls that she finally decided to live on nothing for the rest of the year. After getting enough money from credit cards and all sorts of Borrow & Lend apps, she finally purchased the Ragdoll kitten and asked Zhang Zian to give her more pet accessories. Then she marched to the cashier to pay, making the biggest purchase of her life.

After settling a deal, Zhang Zian was in a good mood. He asked her to pick some small accessories she liked on the shelves, such as food bowl, water bowl, etc.

After it saw someone coming towards the shelves, Galaxy turned around and ran upstairs.

Snowball was already tired of chasing––to the point that it had forgotten why it was chasing Galaxy in the first place. It stopped, out of breath, then turned back to Snowy for some comfort.

Zhang Zian had caught a glimpse of Galaxy and felt surprised. Galaxy usually hid upstairs when there were a lot of people on the first floor. Why was it playing on the first floor?

“Howl!”

Just then, a sharp scream broke the silence in the pet shop.

Everybody was shocked and stopped what they were doing. They looked around, wondering which cat was howling.

Some cats in the shop were active, while some were shy. But all of them were quiet, and only meowed gently even when they were not quiet. Did a stray cat come inside from the street?

The howl even woke up the snoozing Fina and Famous. Fina was especially upset. Who dared to do that right in front of its eyes?

Since there were too many cats in the shop, nobody knew where the sound came from at first. Only Yue Yue stumbled towards the cat carrier.

After a short while, another heart-tearing howl came out of the cat carrier. It was creepy to hear.

“Oh, Big Sister Wenying, your cat… seems to be very sick.” Zhao Qi shuddered at the howl. A chilling sensation crept up her back.

Liu Wenying was also confused. “It’s indeed very sick, but it has never screamed like this before…”

Zhang Zian came close to the cat carrier and looked inside through the screened window. It was too dark inside the carrier; he couldn’t see anything.

Liu Wenying apologized to the customers around her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Did it frighten you? My cat never screams this way. I don’t know what’s wrong about it today… I think I should go and wait at the clinic.”

Wenying didn’t want to bother the other customers, so Zhao Qi didn’t want to bug her further.

Zhang Zian bent down in front of the cat carrier and activated the flashlight function on his phone. A bright cone of light lit up the cat carrier’s inside.

After seeing the Siamese cat clearly, he was astonished. His hands started sweating.

It was in very bad shape. Its hair was wet and cluttered in strands, stinking of vomit.

The most striking part was its eyes: They were blue and greyish, completely lifeless, and blood-shot.

Its mouth was half-open. Gooey saliva dripped down its sharp canine teeth.

It reacted violently as soon as the light shone on it. It wriggled violently, as if it didn’t like the light. One of the front paws was twitching and shaking.

As Zhang Zian was examining inside the cat carrier with the flashlight, Liu Wenying could not leave right away.

Zhang Zian turned the flashlight off, thought about it, and asked: “How many days has the cat been sick?”

“How many days… I’m not sure. Maybe a few days,” Liu Wenying answered. “I’ve been too busy these days and didn’t have much time for it. A few days ago, I noticed it was not eating much and it was barely drinking. Every day when I got back home, I found its food and water barely touched in the bowls.”

“Did it vomit?” Zhang Zian asked again.

“Yes!” Liu Wenying nodded immediately. “The vomit has cat hair in it… I hear that this happens a lot in the spring. I thought it had cat hair in its stomach and had lost its appetite. Then I fed it with some hairball remedy… but it didn’t work after two days. It continued vomiting and didn’t eat anything. It’s losing weight fast… If someone didn’t know what was going on, they might think that I was abusing it.”

Snowy wanted to continue to groom Snowball, but after hearing Liu Wenying’s story, she immediately remembered that Snowball had also vomited cat hair that morning. She held Snowball in her arms and listened carefully.

Liu Wenying paused and continued, “Look how dirty it is. It doesn’t only vomit… after vomiting, it trips on itself into its own vomit, covering itself with filth. It’s so dirty that I want to bathe it, but as soon as I put it into the bathroom, it scratches me like crazy… Look at my arms. These are all its scratches. Luckily I cut its nails a few days ago. Otherwise it would be much worse. In the past, it’s always been hard to bathe, but not as bad as this.” She rolled up her sleeves as she spoke.

Zhao Qi covered her mouth in surprise. Liu Wenying’s arms were covered with red scratches, but they weren’t bleeding.

Zhang Zian frowned and stared at the scratches on her arms. After a while, he looked at Yue Yue. The little girl ran after Snowball all the way to Snowy.

“Is Yue Yue scratched?” he asked.

Liu Wenying rolled her sleeves down and smiled. “No. The cat is too dirty and refuses a bath. Kids are vulnerable, so I didn’t let Yue Yue play with it. Now that it’s the weekend, I wanted to bring it to the pet clinic for a check-up. Injections, infusions… we’ll get whatever is needed. It’ll be fine after the treatment––it has never scratched people in the past. Now it must be feeling miserable in sickness, so I don’t blame it. After it gets treated, I’ll bring it back here for a bath. I heard that you got an automated dog washer. I’m going to try it, then share the pictures in my WeChat moments with my old friends. Haha!”

She had dealt with Zhang Zian a few times already, and knew him well. She wanted to make a joke, but Zhang Zian didn’t find it funny at all. Instead, he looked unusually serious. She chuckled briefly, then stopped.

“What happened? Is it bad? Can you tell what disease it has? Is it… something incurable?” Zhao Qi asked Zhang Zian nervously without laughing.

Liu Wenying made a tight fist and said, “It can’t be, right? It feels warmer than usual. Is it a flu or a fever?”

Zhang Zian took a deep breath. “I have to tell you up front that I’m not a licensed vet, so my judgement may be inaccurate, and only for your reference.”

Liu Wenying nodded. “Store Manager Zhang, you are too modest. Last time, you could tell which dog had eaten too much just by just a simple touch. You also told us how to use the position of the last rib to tell if the dog was full. After I told my dog owner friends, they were all amazed and impressed.”

“I’ll put it straight then. Your cat may not get well ever again,” Zhang Zian said frankly.

“What?” Liu Wenying’s heart was immediately filled with mixed feelings.

At first, she felt sorry for the money she had spent on the cat. If it was incurable, the money would have been wasted. Secondly, if Fluffy never got well again, she could not explain it to Yue Yue, who would surely cry a lot. Lastly, she still had some faint hope that Zhang Zian’s judgement could be wrong. He was not a professional vet, after all.

Zhang Zian added immediately, “But, the cat is not the top priority of the moment––it is yourself! You should go to the closest hospital or vaccination station right away and get yourself a rabies shot. Everything else can wait! Are you sure that Yue Yue has not been scratched nor bitten?”

A few customers were lining up at the cashier. Everyone had heard the conversation between Liu Wenying and Zhang Zian, including Lu Yiyun and Snowy. It spread across the entire pet shop within a moment!

Liu Wenying’s head buzzed as if she had been hit by a heavy hammer. All the blood in her body ran to her head. Her feet slipped and she almost fell.

Zhao Qi was standing right next to her and caught her in time. “Big Sister Wenying!”

The live broadcast audience was joking about marrying Liu Wenying’s adorable daughter Yue Yue. After they heard what was happening, they freaked out immediately.

“Rabies? Manger Weak Bird, you can’t joke about this!”

“How can it be? Can cats carry rabies?”

“Future mother-in-law, don’t just stand there. Rush to the hospital! Oh my goodness. You are driving your son-in-law nuts!”

“Holy crap! This is insane––I mean the one who sent the bullet screen comment just now!”

Snowy’s breath suddenly stopped. She looked down at Snowball in her arms; its eyes were still crystal clear.