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“Look at that kitty go!” Mitsue gasped as she watched a gray cat run around the classroom. Everyone in the class had their eyes on the cat and some people were trying to catch it. Maki was uninterested in the commotion, until Mitsue grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him, “Maki, we should go catch it! I wanna take a picture of it!”
“Then go get a picture of it, nothing’s stopping you,” Maki said. He really didn’t feel like catching this cat. He loved cats but it would be a waste of time, wouldn’t it?
“I won’t be able to take a good one if it keeps running around!” Mitsue placed her hands on her hips, huffing in disbelief at Maki’s annoying comment. Maki sighed.
“Alright, fine,” Maki said as he turned to find the cat again. It had run out of the room already.
After school, Maki went to soft tennis practice. Mitsue went too, of course, even though she’s not a part of the team, she just likes to watch. During their break, Maki had explained to the other team members about the cat on the loose inside the school and how he and Mitsue were planning to catch it.
“Well, what’s your plan?” Toma asked. Maki and Mitsue looked at each other and shrugged. “You seriously don’t even have a plan?!”
“Well, it can’t be too hard,” Maki said, and Mitsue nodded in agreement.
“You may be right… you are pretty fast, but, still, it wouldn’t hurt to have one,” Toma looked at the two of them sideways.
“Toma, it’ll be fine, we don’t always need a plan for everything. Especially not for something like this,” Maki looked up at Toma with a smile on his face. Toma sighed reluctantly.
And so, over the week, Mitsue and Maki had tried to catch the cat whenever they saw the opportunity. But, despite their best efforts, they failed every time. Maki felt like he was working up more of a sweat trying to catch this kitty more than he does during his soft tennis games. It would get in their sights, Maki would try to sneak up and catch it, and then it would run away. Over and over again, that’s the only result they would ever get. Toma must have noticed their discouragement over time.
“Still haven’t caught it?” Toma asked, with a tone of ‘I told you so’ in his voice.
“Ugh, no,” Mitsue pouted. Everyone was silent for a bit, and Toma looked like he was thinking about something.
“Have you tried sneaking up on it?” Toma asked the two, and they both shook their heads yes. Toma looked up, and Maki knew that he must have been thinking pretty hard. “What if you tried to lure it with treats? Maybe gaining its trust is a better way to catch it rather than going for an aggressive approach.”
“You’re right! I might even get a cuter picture too…” Mitsue got really excited. All of them were certain that this plan was going to work. It had to have!
The very next day, Maki and Mitsue were prepared. They had cat treats in their bags, ready for when the cat would finally show up. Just as Toma, Maki, and Mitsue had left, getting ready to walk home together, they had finally caught sight of it! Maki took the treats out of his bag, and crouched down and started calling for the cat.
“Pspspspsp, come here kitty…” Maki called as he put a few treats in his hand. The cat had noticed him, and especially noticed the treats that were in his hand.
The kitty trotted along, coming towards Maki, sniffing his hand with the treats in it. It started eating the treats, and Maki looked over to Mitsue as a signal to take the picture. Mitsue took her phone out and crouched down in front of Maki and the kitty to get the perfect picture. Maki had grabbed the kitty and held it.
“Huh… It doesn’t seem to have a collar on. I wonder if it’s a stray?” Maki wondered.
“I mean, probably. It makes sense why it would be running around like this without anyone even trying to look for it,” Toma responded.
“Well, what now? Mitsue got the picture she wanted but this cat doesn’t seem like it even has a home, I would feel bad just sending it back to the wild,” Maki frowned.
“One of us could adopt it,” Toma said, and was met with Maki and Mitsue both staring at him. “Oh, no, not me. My mom is allergic to cats so that’s probably not the best idea.”
“Well I can’t adopt it either, me and my mom don’t have the kind of money to take care of a pet,”
“Uhm… I could ask my mom if it’s alright… She’d most likely say yes,” Mitsue said, Maki and Toma could tell she was excited, even though it wasn’t shown on her face.
Mitsue took out her treat bag and fed the cat more treats. Eventually, the cat had felt comfortable being picked up by Mitsue and they all headed to Maki and Mitsue’s apartment complex. Once they got there, Toma then waved goodbye as he made his way to his own house.
Once Maki made it into his apartment, Mitsue texted him a picture of her and her new cat hanging out in her room, following with a message that said ‘Mom agreed to keep it.’ Maki smiled at the message, and responded with ‘Cute.’
Maki was overall very happy about the whole thing. It took a long time, but Mitsue seemed to be excited about her new cat. Maybe it was a good exercise too…? Regardless, Maki was pleased.