The Cat That Would be Heard

“Mow?”

Prince slammed his head into his Cali’s leg.

“No, it’s not dinner yet.” Cali pushed him away with her foot. She was fixing herself a snack of sliced apples in the kitchen. “This isn’t yummy for kitties.”

“Maaa!” Prince screamed, revealing long white teeth and the wide pink of his mouth. He turned around, and backed up against her leg. He backed up to his owner, back arched, tail quivering. Cali had bottle fed him herself when he was a newborn fluffy ball hanging onto life. Now he was a big, burly lovebug with a tabby coat and an endless appetite.

“Meow, meow, meow!” He sat down and continued to scream. Cali scratched behind his ears. There was a ring at the door. She left Prince in the kitchen to find a package on the doorstep. When she returned she set it on the coffee table.

“New box kitty!” She took a pair of scissors to slice open the tape. Inside was a patterned harness. She took it out. Prince jumped in and purred.

“Right where I want you.”

Cali got to work with the harness It was the latest in pet care technology. The Talky Suit mapped an animal’s vocalizations and body language in order to translate them into human speech. Like many pet owners, she had always wanted to know what exactly her furry friend was trying to say. She had a small online following built on her posts about Prince. It wasn’t the biggest, but big enough to land her a brand deal with multiple pet companies.

Before Prince could react, Cali forced it over him.

“Hate. No. Bad! Stop!” He clamped his mouth on her hand.

“Oh it works!” Cali sat down on the carpet and readied her phone to take a video. Prince jumped out of the box to hide behind the couch. His ears pinned back and his tail lashed. She pushed the phone close to him.

“Mad. Angry. Go away.” He growled from the back of his throat.

“That’s not very nice Prince.” Cali chided. “Can you say Mommy?”

“Don’t like. Take off. Bite.” His eyes dilated. He was too hyped up for her to remove the harness without him chomping on her. Just that morning he had gotten his claws stuck in her jeans, and retaliated when she tried to free him.

Cali stopped recording. Prince wasn’t exactly endorsing the product. She’d have to wait it out for him to stop sulking. It was too bad that she hadn’t harness trained him as a kitten.

Prince didn’t come out for some time. Cali sat nearby on the couch, where she watched other promotion videos with the talky suit. Plenty of editing went into tidying up the final product, but even with that knowledge, she couldn’t help but feel she was falling behind.

What if it was a sign of something deeper? Maybe this wasn’t just irritation, maybe he was telling her how he really felt. Prince didn’t like her as much as he thought she did. She wasn’t meeting his needs enough, and now he was very loudly letting her know that he hated her.

“Hey.” Prince meowed and flopped on the floor next to her. “Dinner?”

Cali prepared the camera yet again before continuing. She got up to prepare his majesty’s favorite food, a dish of lobster pate. He crouched down and looked up at her expectantly.

“Pet?”

“Of course!” She scratched in between his shoulder blades. Prince couldn’t eat without being lavished with love.

“Yummy, yummy, yummy.”

He gulped it down. It was done he meowed again.

“Still hungry. Feed me.” Prince pawed at her.

“No buddy.” Cali ended the video to assess the footage.

“Feed!” He butted his head into her hand.

So he didn’t hate her, although he may see her more as a personal chef. It had been such a silly thought. She had been stupid. Prince was just being a cat.

Cali spent the rest of the evening following Prince around. He led a simple life of leisure, eating, snuggles, and hunting his own shadow. After she got enough, she sat down to edit.

That night she woke up to a heavy weight sat on her chest, making a deep rumble. Prince’s eyes glinted in the closet light. His pupils were massive in the dark.

“Awake? Play now!”

She stretched and arm out to pat the side table until she found her phone. 2:34. Prince settled down and purred.

“Happy. Content.” He slowly blinked. “Kiss kiss.” Prince’s face scrunched up as he squinted. “Love you.”

Cali scratched him under the chin, and removed the harness.

“Love you too kitty.”

She had agreed to the brand deal, but she didn’t really need the Talky Suit. It wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know.