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"Good morning, Sir!" the detective greeted Edgeworth. A nod was his reply. "Uh, Mr. Edgeworth. . ."
"Mew."
Edgeworth did a double take. "Detective?"
Gumshoe laughed. "Oh, that wasn't me, Sir! That was Kitty!" He pulled a very small kitten from one of his pockets, made even smaller by his large hands.
"Where did you get that?" Edgeworth asked, walking over to Gumshoe in order to get a closer look at the wee one.
"Oh, I found her by the building when I first got to work this morning! Isn't she cute, sir?" he asked, hopefully. But Edgeworth knew a loaded question when he heard it.
"You want me to take her home."
Gumshoe looked abashed. "Well, Sir, I called up my landlord, and I can't really afford the fee to keep her. She's really no trouble!"
"You are feeding her several times a day?" Edgeworth asked. "She's very young."
"Oh yeah! Four weeks, the vet said. She usually starts crying when she's hungry." He pulled a tiny bottle out of another pocket.
Vet? "Your chief allowed you to take a kitten to the veterinarian's office during work hours?"
"Isn't she a citizen to protect too, Sir?"
"Citizen, no, worthy of protection, yes." Gumshoe beamed. "But I can't take her home."
The other man was crestfallen. "Aww, Mr. Edgeworth. . ."
Edgeworth began to sneeze, and Gumshoe got the picture. "Sorry, Sir!"
Between sneezes, Edgeworth managed to promise to send out an email to search for prospective homes for the kitten during his lunch hour.
It was five o'clock, and Gumshoe hadn't had a single prospective taker for the kitten. His heart was heavy as he fed her the bottle.
"What are we gonna do? I was sure someone as cute as you would get snatched up by a good owner."
His phone rang.
"Hi! You want a kitten?" he answered breathlessly.
Nothing on the other line for a few seconds. "Actually, yes."
"Mr. Justice?!"
"Yeah. Oh, did someone take her yet?"
"No, no! She's all yours, Pal! I just--you didn't really seem like a cat person." A huff on the other side.
"Why does everyone say that?"
They met by Gumshoe's car, and Gumshoe instructed Apollo on the use of the bottle. He hugged the kitten goodbye and thanked Apollo again.
Carrying his new kitten gently against him, Apollo pondered what everyone had said.
"Huh? You're taking it? You like cats?" Trucy had asked him, surprise writ large on her face.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"You just seem like more of a dog person."
"Dogs are loud and obnoxious! Cats are quiet and peaceful."
He didn't want to think of what Mr. Wright and Trucy's eyes on him meant after he said that.