Episode Eight:
An Adventure
It turned out that flooding a house is a very mesmerizing experience. I sat there, watching the water flood from my perch on the counter. Lily swam around excitedly in circles. The puddle on the floor grew bigger. And bigger. And bigger.
It slowly expanded across the floor, its reflective surface shimmering and shining from the daylight flooding in from the kitchen windows. It went under the refrigerator. I was impressed. I’d tried to stick my paws under that thing before to catch a toy and they wouldn’t fit. Apparently, water was quite flexible.
It also spread out away from us across the kitchen floor and began to slowly inch toward the living room carpet.
The puddle silently expanded, like it was crawling across the floor in order to sneak up on the carpet and take it by surprise. I wasn’t sure if anything would happen when the water finally made it to the living room. I was hoping for something really dramatic, like the time I watched Abigail mix baking soda and vinegar and all the sudden water started bubbling everywhere!
Lily was less optimistic.
“What do you think will happen?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe the water will stop when it reaches the living room?”
We watched as the water drew closer and closer, within inches of the carpet. I began to cheer it on like I’ve seen Mom and Dad cheer when they watch football on TV. “Keep going! Come on, you’ve got this! You can make this!”
The water and carpet touched.
At first, it seemed like nothing happened. Then slowly, very slowly, the carpet at the spot where the living room met the kitchen began to change color. The light tan color began to turn into a darker brown.
I waited eagerly to see if anything more interesting would happen, but it appeared that color-changing was the only trick the carpet had to offer. I rested my head on my paws and tried to remain interested as the darker brown patch ever so slowly started expanding further into the living room, but it wasn’t moving as quickly as the water, so it was actually kind of boring.
“I think I’m going to take a little nap right here,” I told Lily. “Hopefully I’ll doze for a couple hours and by the time I wake up, the whole house will be flooded.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” said Lily. “Maybe I’ll do that too.”
“You can sleep?” I’d never seen Lily sleeping before, so I guess I’d just assumed that that was another difference between fish and cats--that fish, in addition to breathing from water, also didn’t have to sleep.
“Of course,” said Lily with a little laugh. “I sleep better when it’s dark in the room, like at night when Mom and Dad turn off the kitchen lights, but I can sleep in the day if I want to.”
“But I’ve never seen you with your eyes closed,” I protested.
“That’s because fish don’t have eyelids,” Lily informed me. “You can tell I’m sleeping if I’m just hovering in my tank without really moving around.”
“Oh.” That was good to know. No wonder Lily sometimes seemed startled when she was floating in one place and I started talking to her.
“Good night, Tiger,” she said. “I’ll see you when the house is flooded.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “See you then.”
I drifted off to sleep. My dreams were about me being a fish, swimming with Lily in a house-sized fishbowl.
I was jolted awake when I heard Mom scream. I jumped up and scrambled down from the counter, landing on the wet floor. Ew, ew, ew! It didn’t seem deep, but it was definitely wet and uncomfortable. I ran into the living room before remembering the carpet was flooded too. Squish. Squish. Squish. I jumped up onto the couch as quickly as I could. The couch was nice and dry.
I was disappointed as I surveyed the living room and realized that the house was still a long way from being flooded. The carpet had changed color all the way over to the little table where my family keeps the TV remote, but there was still no actual water for Lily to swim in.
“How did this happen?” Mom exclaimed, running over to the sink and turning the water off. “Did I forget to turn the faucet off… how did this sock get in the sink?”
Lily was awake too; I could tell because she was swimming around. I looked at her apologetically. Now that Mom had noticed what was going on, I probably wouldn’t be able to go over there again and turn the water back on.
Mom seemed pretty upset for some reason. So did Dad, when he got home from work. “We’ll have to have all the living room carpet pulled up,” he said to Mom. “With that much water, there will be mold damage for sure.”
Abigail was the only one who didn’t seem upset. Once she got home from school she asked, “Does this mean we get to put new carpet in the living room? Can I choose the color?”
“It means,” said Dad, “that we’re going to have to find somewhere else to stay for a couple days while the carpet people are doing their job.”
The next day was my favorite kind of day, the kind where Abigail didn’t have to go to school. But it quickly turned into a not-so-fun kind of day when Dad scooped me up from my spot next to Lily and put me in the cat carrier he’d used to take me to the vet.
“What’s this?” I yowled. “I just went to the vet a few days ago! I don’t want to go again!”
Then something very weird happened. Mom put some kind of cover over Lily’s bowl, and picked the bowl up with Lily in it. She carried Lily while Dad carried me, both of us out to the car.
“Where are they taking us?” I asked. Do fish have to go to the vet sometimes too?
Lily seemed excited. She was swimming around very quickly in her bowl, looking at everything. “Tiger!” she said. “This is great! I’m getting to see more of the house now! We’re going on an adventure!”
My ears perked up as I realized that was true. Lily and I were going on an adventure together, just like we’d always wanted.
We all rode in the car together: Dad, Mom, and Lily up front, Abigail and me in the back with some suitcases. The drive felt about as long as the drive to the vet, and once again it made me feel kind of sick. But finally, the car stopped and Mom and Dad brought us into a house. A different house.
Dad set my carrier down on the floor, and opened the door so I could go out if I wanted to. But I stayed put, liking the security of being inside something so small and protected. The fur on my back stood up as I took in all the unfamiliar smells. This house smelled nothing like my own house, which made it kind of scary. One smell stood out from all the rest, and made my tail fluff up to twice its original size.
A CAT. Another cat was somewhere in this house!
I growled, then opened my mouth and let out a loud hiss. “I’m a tiger,” I said threateningly. I couldn’t see the other cat, but with how strongly I could smell it, I knew it could be lurking around anywhere. “Don’t mess with me or my family, Other Cat.”
“Tiger?” Lily’s voice was very faint, but I had trained my ears to pick up that sound anywhere. “Tiger, where are you?”
Suddenly, I remembered something Dad had said a long time ago, back when Lily had first come to live with us. Don’t eat the fishy. I’d thought that was a very weird thing to say, but… had he said that because some cats might want to eat a fishy? Was Lily in danger?
I bolted out of the carrier and ran in the direction of Lily’s voice. I saw her bowl sitting up on an unfamiliar counter, in an unfamiliar kitchen, and I jumped up to check on her. “Are you okay?” I asked.
Lily swished her tail, confused. “Of course,” she said. “Tiger, this is really cool! Your plan worked, kind of! I mean, I didn’t get to swim around the house, but at least we get to check out a new place!”
I crouched next to her bowl, keeping my back up against the cabinet so no one could sneak up on me from behind. The smell of the other cat was even stronger here in the kitchen, and with every flicker of movement, I jerked my head in that direction to see if it was the cat. But it wasn’t. It was always Mom or Dad or Abigail, or some people who I recognized as having been over to our house a few times.
“There’s another cat here,” I told Lily in a low voice.
“Really?” Lily sounded intrigued. “That’s cool. I’ve never met another cat before.”
“Be careful,” I warned her. “Some cats aren’t very friendly. I’ve heard rumors that some cats might try to eat fish.”
“Eat fish?”
“I think so. But don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”
I stayed next to Lily’s bowl for almost the entire day. Eventually, Mom and the other woman came into the kitchen and started chopping up some vegetables. Yuck. Some of the food my family prepares for themselves is tempting and delicious, but vegetables? I don’t get the attraction.
“Thank you again for letting us stay here over the weekend,” Mom said. “We all really appreciate it.”
“No problem,” the other lady replied. “We all like having you here. Well,” she laughed, looking over at me. “Boots might not like it so much, but that’s okay. Boots can deal with it.”
I sat there watching them cook, puzzling over why a pair of boots might have a problem with us being in this other house. Then, I took the opportunity to start explaining some things to Lily, pointing out things she could see from her bowl in this house that she couldn't see from her bowl in our house. Eventually, dinner was ready and the people all sat down to eat.
Normally, I like to hang around the table when my family eats dinner, because Abigail usually drops a few scraps of whatever she’s eating under the table for me. This night, though, I stayed where I was, the cacophony of unfamiliar smells and sounds making me uneasy. I could still sense that other cat lurking somewhere around, though I hadn’t caught sight of even a whisker.
As my eyes fell on my family again, I was hit by a sudden idea. “Lily,” I said. “Do you mind if I get down from the counter for a few minutes? Mom and Dad and Abigail can all see you from here, and they won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
“Of course that’s fine,” said Lily. “Are you going to explore the house? Let me know what it’s like!”
“Better than that,” I said, jumping down and stretching before prowling over to the long, dark hallway at the edge of the living room. “I’m going to go find that other cat.”
It slowly expanded across the floor, its reflective surface shimmering and shining from the daylight flooding in from the kitchen windows. It went under the refrigerator. I was impressed. I’d tried to stick my paws under that thing before to catch a toy and they wouldn’t fit. Apparently, water was quite flexible.
It also spread out away from us across the kitchen floor and began to slowly inch toward the living room carpet.
The puddle silently expanded, like it was crawling across the floor in order to sneak up on the carpet and take it by surprise. I wasn’t sure if anything would happen when the water finally made it to the living room. I was hoping for something really dramatic, like the time I watched Abigail mix baking soda and vinegar and all the sudden water started bubbling everywhere!
Lily was less optimistic.
“What do you think will happen?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe the water will stop when it reaches the living room?”
We watched as the water drew closer and closer, within inches of the carpet. I began to cheer it on like I’ve seen Mom and Dad cheer when they watch football on TV. “Keep going! Come on, you’ve got this! You can make this!”
The water and carpet touched.
At first, it seemed like nothing happened. Then slowly, very slowly, the carpet at the spot where the living room met the kitchen began to change color. The light tan color began to turn into a darker brown.
I waited eagerly to see if anything more interesting would happen, but it appeared that color-changing was the only trick the carpet had to offer. I rested my head on my paws and tried to remain interested as the darker brown patch ever so slowly started expanding further into the living room, but it wasn’t moving as quickly as the water, so it was actually kind of boring.
“I think I’m going to take a little nap right here,” I told Lily. “Hopefully I’ll doze for a couple hours and by the time I wake up, the whole house will be flooded.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” said Lily. “Maybe I’ll do that too.”
“You can sleep?” I’d never seen Lily sleeping before, so I guess I’d just assumed that that was another difference between fish and cats--that fish, in addition to breathing from water, also didn’t have to sleep.
“Of course,” said Lily with a little laugh. “I sleep better when it’s dark in the room, like at night when Mom and Dad turn off the kitchen lights, but I can sleep in the day if I want to.”
“But I’ve never seen you with your eyes closed,” I protested.
“That’s because fish don’t have eyelids,” Lily informed me. “You can tell I’m sleeping if I’m just hovering in my tank without really moving around.”
“Oh.” That was good to know. No wonder Lily sometimes seemed startled when she was floating in one place and I started talking to her.
“Good night, Tiger,” she said. “I’ll see you when the house is flooded.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “See you then.”
I drifted off to sleep. My dreams were about me being a fish, swimming with Lily in a house-sized fishbowl.
I was jolted awake when I heard Mom scream. I jumped up and scrambled down from the counter, landing on the wet floor. Ew, ew, ew! It didn’t seem deep, but it was definitely wet and uncomfortable. I ran into the living room before remembering the carpet was flooded too. Squish. Squish. Squish. I jumped up onto the couch as quickly as I could. The couch was nice and dry.
I was disappointed as I surveyed the living room and realized that the house was still a long way from being flooded. The carpet had changed color all the way over to the little table where my family keeps the TV remote, but there was still no actual water for Lily to swim in.
“How did this happen?” Mom exclaimed, running over to the sink and turning the water off. “Did I forget to turn the faucet off… how did this sock get in the sink?”
Lily was awake too; I could tell because she was swimming around. I looked at her apologetically. Now that Mom had noticed what was going on, I probably wouldn’t be able to go over there again and turn the water back on.
Mom seemed pretty upset for some reason. So did Dad, when he got home from work. “We’ll have to have all the living room carpet pulled up,” he said to Mom. “With that much water, there will be mold damage for sure.”
Abigail was the only one who didn’t seem upset. Once she got home from school she asked, “Does this mean we get to put new carpet in the living room? Can I choose the color?”
“It means,” said Dad, “that we’re going to have to find somewhere else to stay for a couple days while the carpet people are doing their job.”
The next day was my favorite kind of day, the kind where Abigail didn’t have to go to school. But it quickly turned into a not-so-fun kind of day when Dad scooped me up from my spot next to Lily and put me in the cat carrier he’d used to take me to the vet.
“What’s this?” I yowled. “I just went to the vet a few days ago! I don’t want to go again!”
Then something very weird happened. Mom put some kind of cover over Lily’s bowl, and picked the bowl up with Lily in it. She carried Lily while Dad carried me, both of us out to the car.
“Where are they taking us?” I asked. Do fish have to go to the vet sometimes too?
Lily seemed excited. She was swimming around very quickly in her bowl, looking at everything. “Tiger!” she said. “This is great! I’m getting to see more of the house now! We’re going on an adventure!”
My ears perked up as I realized that was true. Lily and I were going on an adventure together, just like we’d always wanted.
We all rode in the car together: Dad, Mom, and Lily up front, Abigail and me in the back with some suitcases. The drive felt about as long as the drive to the vet, and once again it made me feel kind of sick. But finally, the car stopped and Mom and Dad brought us into a house. A different house.
Dad set my carrier down on the floor, and opened the door so I could go out if I wanted to. But I stayed put, liking the security of being inside something so small and protected. The fur on my back stood up as I took in all the unfamiliar smells. This house smelled nothing like my own house, which made it kind of scary. One smell stood out from all the rest, and made my tail fluff up to twice its original size.
A CAT. Another cat was somewhere in this house!
I growled, then opened my mouth and let out a loud hiss. “I’m a tiger,” I said threateningly. I couldn’t see the other cat, but with how strongly I could smell it, I knew it could be lurking around anywhere. “Don’t mess with me or my family, Other Cat.”
“Tiger?” Lily’s voice was very faint, but I had trained my ears to pick up that sound anywhere. “Tiger, where are you?”
Suddenly, I remembered something Dad had said a long time ago, back when Lily had first come to live with us. Don’t eat the fishy. I’d thought that was a very weird thing to say, but… had he said that because some cats might want to eat a fishy? Was Lily in danger?
I bolted out of the carrier and ran in the direction of Lily’s voice. I saw her bowl sitting up on an unfamiliar counter, in an unfamiliar kitchen, and I jumped up to check on her. “Are you okay?” I asked.
Lily swished her tail, confused. “Of course,” she said. “Tiger, this is really cool! Your plan worked, kind of! I mean, I didn’t get to swim around the house, but at least we get to check out a new place!”
I crouched next to her bowl, keeping my back up against the cabinet so no one could sneak up on me from behind. The smell of the other cat was even stronger here in the kitchen, and with every flicker of movement, I jerked my head in that direction to see if it was the cat. But it wasn’t. It was always Mom or Dad or Abigail, or some people who I recognized as having been over to our house a few times.
“There’s another cat here,” I told Lily in a low voice.
“Really?” Lily sounded intrigued. “That’s cool. I’ve never met another cat before.”
“Be careful,” I warned her. “Some cats aren’t very friendly. I’ve heard rumors that some cats might try to eat fish.”
“Eat fish?”
“I think so. But don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”
I stayed next to Lily’s bowl for almost the entire day. Eventually, Mom and the other woman came into the kitchen and started chopping up some vegetables. Yuck. Some of the food my family prepares for themselves is tempting and delicious, but vegetables? I don’t get the attraction.
“Thank you again for letting us stay here over the weekend,” Mom said. “We all really appreciate it.”
“No problem,” the other lady replied. “We all like having you here. Well,” she laughed, looking over at me. “Boots might not like it so much, but that’s okay. Boots can deal with it.”
I sat there watching them cook, puzzling over why a pair of boots might have a problem with us being in this other house. Then, I took the opportunity to start explaining some things to Lily, pointing out things she could see from her bowl in this house that she couldn't see from her bowl in our house. Eventually, dinner was ready and the people all sat down to eat.
Normally, I like to hang around the table when my family eats dinner, because Abigail usually drops a few scraps of whatever she’s eating under the table for me. This night, though, I stayed where I was, the cacophony of unfamiliar smells and sounds making me uneasy. I could still sense that other cat lurking somewhere around, though I hadn’t caught sight of even a whisker.
As my eyes fell on my family again, I was hit by a sudden idea. “Lily,” I said. “Do you mind if I get down from the counter for a few minutes? Mom and Dad and Abigail can all see you from here, and they won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
“Of course that’s fine,” said Lily. “Are you going to explore the house? Let me know what it’s like!”
“Better than that,” I said, jumping down and stretching before prowling over to the long, dark hallway at the edge of the living room. “I’m going to go find that other cat.”
Next > Episode Nine: Boots
