Chapter Text
Lapis was watering the plants when she heard a quiet mewing noise and thought nothing of it. There it was again she tried to ignore it thinking it was a trick peri was doing. She finished watering the crops and decided to lay down in the field taking a break. Peridot heard a noise that sounded like a cat while she was tinkering with a new invention in the barn she ignored it. When she was almost finished with her new invention that humans called a heater she felt something soft rub against her leg instinctively she looked towards it seeing it was an orange cat she stayed still looking at it unsure of what to do. She reached her hand out to touch it when she did the cat leaned into where her hand was. The cat's head felt soft, almost like a blanket. She wanted to tell Lapis about the cat but was unsure of what could happen if she left the cat to go look for her and as if Lapis could hear her thoughts she walked into the barn. She yelled down to lapis making the cat flinch back from Peridot's hand from the loud noise Peridot noticed and placed her hand back on the small creature petting it to soothe it. Lapis heard peridot call out for her and went up to the second level to see why she yelled for her she saw the cat and asked “Hey Peri i think you got a friend there with ya” Peridot scoffed “Ya think” the cat saw lapis and decided to walk up to her. The little cat meowed to get lapis attention which worked lapis kneeled down as she did that the cat sat down staring at her. Lapis reached out and the cat leaned her head up to make contact with her warm hands. Lapis had never really felt the fur of a cat it was soft and silky, very well taken care of if she were to guess. Lapis looked from the cat to peridot. Peridot was unsure of what to think of the cat so she spoke first “Hey lazuli do you want to keep it?” Lazuli had to think for a moment she wasn't sure of how to take care of this kind of creature but found herself drawn to it “Yeah i think it will be good for us to take care of this precious thing”
A few hours passed by and they had to talk to Garnet and ask her how to take care of a cat. She said they would need to feed it and water it but not water it like they do the crops. It needs a food bowl and water dish. They took Garnet with them to get the things for their new family member. They named him pumpkin since a few years ago they lost the og pumpkin to natural causes and the cat's orange fur reminded them of her. After they were done getting the materials for keeping a cat alive they decided to get some enrichment toys since they didn't have any back at the barn. In total they ended up getting a food bowl, a water dish, cat food, Cat toys and some cat treats since they wanted to train the cat to attack any intruders. They brought all the things back to the barn and found the cat asleep on the couch in front of the TV. They placed down the bags carefully so as to not wake up Pumpkin. He deserved to sleep. This was a new place after all. They set up everything they bought for him, filling the food dish as the instructions on the back of the bag said they had the toys in the drawers under the tv to not take up too much space. It was getting late and Peridot had finished building the heater and turned it on for the night since it was fall and was not sure how the cat would react to the cold night.
In the morning the heard the cat meowing probably for attention was peridots guess but she checked the time seeing it was almost 2 pm he probably already ate all of his food she got up careful to not wake lapis but failed since the cat meowed louder waking lapis up from her sleep Lapis groaned from being awoken from her sleep the cat jumped onto the bed the two gems were on. Pumpkin walked onto lapis back trying to get her to move, Peridot stopped the cat picking him up in her arms bringing him to the food bowl. Pumpkin looked at her with confusion as he sat there watching her pick up the food dish filling it to the required amount and placed it back in its spot “There ya go pumpkin now you have some food.” The cat sniffed it, eventually eating it as Peridot watched she noticed he was out of water as well so she took care of that by filling it up. She went to go back to the bed sitting next to lapis. The two were sitting on the bed looking at the cat. A few minutes passed the cat finished his food looking around eventually seeing the two gems looking at him he walked towards the bed and jumped up settling in peridots lap lapis saw that and scooched closer to peridot reaching down to pet pumpkin peridot felt pumpkin puring in her lap “I think he likes you Peri” lapis said with a smile on her face. “Yeah i think he does im glad were gonna keep him” lapis giggled a bit seeing peridot blush at the cat in her lap and their closeness how she wished they could stay like this an hour went by without them realizing peridots legs were getting a bit uncomfortable staying in one position with a cat in her lap. She shoved the cat off of her lap knowing it would probably wake him up. She needed to get up and stretch so she could be ready for the day. Lapis saw this and also got up. She needed to move around anyway. She had to research more about a cat to learn their needs since she didn't want to bother Garnet more than she had already yesterday.
She had learned that cats sleep a lot more than they should so when they are awake they can use more energy to catch food but since they were already giving him food the toys they bought would help him spend his energy. Pumpkin was awake so she took this as an opportunity to have him play with one of the new toys they had gotten him. The toy was a plastic rod with a string that had feathers on the the end when pumpkin saw it he was curious as to what it was lapis waved it around a bit pumpkin was unsure but then started to try and play with it lapis didn't know if she was doing it right but seeing pumpkin play with it was all she needed to raise her confidence in what she was doing the cat tired out after around 20 minutes and walked towards lapis losing interest in what he was doing instead wanting to get pet. Lapis started to pet Pumpkin wondering what peridot was up to she left while she was researching what cats like to do. She was probably at little homeworld telling their friends about the new addition to the family.