the cat & the dog (2)

Moose didn’t merely occupy space—he owned it, albeit with a bumbling kind of charm. The house they shared was large enough for them to avoid each other, but life had other plans.

One morning, a chill wind rattled the windows, and the furnace, a reliable beast until that moment, decided to quit. Their human, a distracted artist named June, fretted over her unfinished canvas while she made frantic calls to the repairman.

It was a day of cold drafts and closed doors, and for the first time in months, Velvet and Moose found themselves confined to the same room. Velvet perched atop the bookshelf, her green eyes narrowed into slits.