It smelled strange today…it smelled strange, and I knew it the moment I stirred from my slumber at the foot of Dimitri’s bed. There was another animal in this house, another animal…and it smelled familiar, yet so different to me.
Digging my front claws into the mattress of his currently unmade bed, I moved to stretch quickly. Relief almost automatically washing over the muscles that had tensed from sleeping curled up so tightly all night. Was it Saturday? All I knew was that this was the day where Dimitri didn’t disappear and leave me alone all day.
There was a pause, and then that strange smell was in my nose again, and I hopped down from the bed. Padded feet pressing against wooden floorboards, before I dashed forwards and out the crack where Dimitri’s door had been left opened.
There was a strange bit of commotion in the living room, and there sat the entire family. Svetlana and Dimitri Alexandrov, the people that I had come to know as a family. The blond mother was out doing hell knows what on most days, all I knew was that Dimitri didn’t seem too thrilled with that idea.
I meowed softly and stared up at the boy, pawing at his leg slightly. He looked down, and there was that smile that I only ever saw towards myself. There was a pause, and he reached down, scooping me up into his arms. It didn’t take long to curl into his lap, and rest there comfortably. Meowing softly, and staring to his mother, who was sitting next to something that looked like a cage.
“Dimitri…get Nickel out of here…he’s just going to scare away the new cat.” She muttered, the smile on the young man’s face, automatically turning into a stern scowl.
“Psh, Nickel isn’t going to do anything to the new cat, right Nickel?” he asked, as I merely stared up at him. New cat? What were they talking about…I thought that I was the family cat. The mother moved to open the grate at the front of the cage, and suddenly my ears were perked up and I was staring off towards that small opening. What was this new cat going to be like? Were they going to hate me?
There was another couple of silent moments, the room almost felt tense to me. Then I saw her, a fluffy white Persian cat, the pure essence of attitude. Her ears were back flat against my head, and it looked like she was a bit frightened. I hopped down out of Dimitri’s arms; maybe if I was nice to her now, she wouldn’t dislike me. Approaching the other cat, I just earned a hiss and had a clawed paw bat at me.
I jumped back slightly, by this point my own ears were pressed back against my head. A low yowl emitting from my lips, as his mother jumped up.
“I told you he would scare her!” she nearly yelled, making a grab for me. Dimitri was standing quickly, towering over his own mother. “She was the one that scratched at him!” he yelled, looking angry himself.
The rest of the day was basically pulling the new cat out from under couches and beds, trying to get her to eat. She definitely wasn’t going to be sleeping in Dimitri’s bed, or go anywhere near him. That was my place, and this was my friend. My best friend, and she couldn’t have him.
She wouldn’t even talk to me, and I felt as if I had made an enemy that I had done nothing to deserve. But night came soon enough, and I was back in Dimitri’s bed, while this other cat slept wherever it could find.
And thus, Salem…the freakin wonder cat, was introduced into our small family.