“Yes. So, today, I went to a clinic—”
“Stay away from me! I’m allergic to cats!” Natsue covered her nose with the sleeve of her dress and glared at him with tearful eyes.
Koga was bemused. “Allergic? Since when?”
“Since before we got married! I’ve told you many times!”
She rushed out of the room.
Koga stood stunned. He had no choice but to lug the pet carrier and the paper bag upstairs to the spare room they were using as storage. He set the carrier on the floor and sat next to it.
“Allergies, huh? Oh, boy,” he muttered. “She was sneezing a lot, so maybe she is actually allergic to cats.”
His eyes met those of the cat peeking through the mesh panel of the carrier. It stared at him as if waiting to see what he might do.
“What? Don’t look at me like that. I’ve got this under control. I’m the head of this household. I’ll take care of this. Just sit tight. Please.”
When he went back downstairs, Natsue was waiting for him in the living room with narrowed eyes. The look on her face made it clear things were not going to go smoothly.
“So, you know, that cat was actually prescribed to me at one of those mental health clinics or whatever. The doctor said that cats can solve most problems—”
“Are you kidding me?” Natsue was furious. “You’re not seriously planning to keep this cat without consulting me, are you?”
“No, no, no. I’m just looking after it for a bit. I’m returning the cat to the clinic after ten days. Just ten days. I’ll take responsibility for its care during this time.”
After several minutes of Koga’s desperate efforts to appease her, Natsue gave in.
“Please don’t let the cat roam around the house. Keep it out of the living room and the bedroom. It’s the hair that bothers me. Whenever I touch a cat, my nose gets all itchy—” Natsue sneezed again. “Look, you’re covered in cat hair. Go outside and shake off your clothes!”
“Okay, okay.”
When Koga went outside to brush down his clothes, he spotted the neighbors watching him curiously. He wondered why he, the king of his castle, was being subjected to this. Maybe it was time he showed them a thing or two. But he could feel fury radiating from Natsue, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner. This was not the moment for him to voice his grievances.
He dragged himself back upstairs to the spare room and snapped open the door of the pet carrier. The cat remained tucked away inside. The paper bag contained all the essentials for taking care of the cat, such as food, a water bowl, and kitty litter. Koga sat cross-legged on the tatami floor and read the instruction leaflet.
Name: Margot. Female. Estimated to be 3 years old. Mixed breed. Feed moderate amounts of cat food in the morning and at night. Water bowl must always be full. Clean kitty litter as needed. Generally independent and can be left alone. When the cat is asleep, make sure to close the door to her room. If she seems unhappy about being shut in, open all the doors in the house and let her come and go as she pleases. That’s all.
The instructions were simple. Regardless of whether the cat preferred the door open or closed, he couldn’t have the cat wandering around Natsue, so he’d have no choice but to keep the door of their room closed that night. Otherwise, it seemed like he could leave the cat be.
He went to the bathroom to fill up a bowl with water and the other with dry food and placed both in the corner of the room.
“What else?”
While he was looking up feline care tips on his phone, the cat peeked around the edge of the carrier. She emerged slowly, then took a restless look around the room.
Margot was a quintessential mixed-breed cat, her coat a mixture of black and reddish-brown. She also had a couple of white patches at the tips of her paws and at the base of her neck. She wasn’t classically beautiful, but she exuded an aura of strength. Her eyes were the color of green tea, with a black vertical line in the center. The sharp upward tilt of her eyes lent her a touch of wildness. Her lean, long-limbed frame brought to mind the muscularity of a lightweight boxer.
“What’s up with you? You look so strong for a female cat. It says you’re mixed breed, but isn’t there a name for cats that look like you?”
A search online revealed that she was most likely considered a tortoiseshell cat. They were known to be intelligent, alert, and affectionate.
He noticed that the cat had come to sit beside him and was staring at him with piercing tea-green eyes.
“What is it? You’re scaring me. Margot, right? Listen, Margot. I’m the master of the house. I call the shots here, so don’t you even think about scratching me.”
Margot’s eyes showed no emotion. She tilted her head a little, and then, to his relief, she moved toward the corner of the room and began to chomp. Online sources cautioned that if a cat refused to eat for three days, it should be taken to a veterinarian.
“Well, that’s to be expected. Her role requires her to stay with different people, so no wonder she’s well-trained. But what a strange idea. A cat that helps with sleep.”
With her back to him, the cat crunched away at her meal. Her long tail swayed from side to side. It seemed to have a hypnotic effect on him; owing to his recent months of sleep deprivation, he felt his eyelids grow heavy.
Meow, meow, meow.
Meow, meow, meow.
Plugging his ears or pressing his pillow over his head was useless. Unable to stand it any longer, he threw off his blanket. How many times had he gotten up already?
In the darkness, Margot continued meowing at the small window. Not being allowed to take Margot into the bedroom due to Natsue’s allergies but reluctant to put the cat he had been prescribed to treat his insomnia in a separate room, Koga decided to bring a full set of bedding into the spare room to sleep there with the cat.
At first, Margot had been quiet. With her tiny paws, she’d kneaded the corner of the cushion he had set out for her as if she were giving it a massage. Her adorable gestures made even Koga, who was over fifty, feel a heartwarming rush. It somehow reminded him of his daughter’s early childhood.
After a while, however, Margot’s incessant cries began to trouble him. She did not stop whimpering. Concerned something might be wrong with her, he searched for answers on his phone. He read that if a cat’s living environment wasn’t properly set up, it might meow throughout the night due to stress. Having been suddenly placed in an unfamiliar home, Margot was struggling to sleep.
At first, Koga felt sorry for her, but after two, then three hours, he could no longer endure it.
Meow, meow, meow. She kept crying toward the window.
