Page 19 of We’ll Prescribe You Another Cat

The doctor’s smile widened.

“My hearing is excellent, so it’s impossible for me to pretend I didn’t hear anything. Well then, Ms. Kajiwara, we’ll prescribe you a cat. Hmm. How about the one in the carrier?”

“Huh?”

Reona looked down at the carrier. “Shasha?”

“Yes. She’s conveniently right there. It’ll be great.”

“Hold on a moment,”

Reona interjected, her tone sharper than before as she regarded the doctor.

“Isn’t it awful to treat the cat as if she’s an object? ‘She’s conveniently right there.’ In the first place, even if this is a psychiatric clinic, I can’t imagine how stressful it must be for the cat to be loaned out to strangers.”

“It’s a common misunderstanding, but this is not a psychiatric clinic. Cats aren’t meant to be borrowed or loaned. If I tried that, they’d scratch me. They are all very strong-willed. Isn’t that right?”

The doctor lowered his head and peeked into the carrier, but Shasha didn’t react.

“Ah, playing the cat, are we? You’re quite the performer for being so small. Cats build their own worlds, whether they’re locked in a small cage or roaming under the expansive sky. That domain belongs solely to them; outsiders cannot intrude. Unless they invite you in, you can’t enter. Like a door bolted shut.”

The doctor nodded, visibly pleased with himself.

Reona had been listening in puzzlement. What nonsense. What is it that he actually wants to say?

“Well, I’d like you to consider the stress on the cat as well.”

The doctor chuckled.

“The cats work extra well on people like you who care. I’m going to prescribe you this cat. Don’t forget to take it with the cat you already have. It’ll be a double-dose attack on your ailment,”

the doctor announced, sounding as if he were selling a combination cold medicine in a commercial. He burst into another fit of giggles.

Shousuke spoke in a whisper to Reona.

“Are you okay? This is all really odd.”

“Yeah. A double-dose attack?”

“No, not that.”

Shousuke hesitated.

“The thing about hating your mom.”

“Ah, no, no, no!”

Her face turned scarlet in an instant. Shoot. I need Shousuke to pretend he didn’t hear anything either. She was so embarrassed, she couldn’t look him in the eye.

“It’s not true. Don’t take it seriously.”

Shousuke nodded and smiled awkwardly. “Got it.”

What’s gotten into me? Had she been thrown off because the doctor looked identical to her brother?

Sure, some aspects of her mother irritated her, but voicing those feelings out loud made them seem much harsher. Feeling annoyed with someone is completely different from hating them.

“We’ll prescribe you the cat for ten days. I’ll write you a prescription, so please pick up what you need from reception.”

“Ten days?”

asked Shousuke.

“Won’t Shasha’s owner worry if she’s gone for that long?”

“Not to worry. This one doesn’t have an owner yet. Someone took her from a breeder, but they returned her when they found another cat they preferred. It happens quite often. It’s no bad thing to be choosey about your cat, whether it be about its appearance or breed. It’s a long-term relationship, after all. There’s no way of knowing if your choice might end up changing something for someone down the line, is there?”

What on earth did he mean?

As she listened to the doctor, a haze of discontent settled over her. She could feel the cat’s warmth through the carrier. It seemed too cruel that such an adorable kitten had been returned.

“All right, that’s it for today. We’re closing up, and I’m running out of energy. If you’re able to say what you want to say before the ten-day dose is up, you’re welcome to bring the cat back early.”

Forcibly ushered out by the smiling doctor, the two left the examination room with the pet carrier they had arrived with. Reona and Shousuke exchanged glances.

“I guess you got prescribed a cat, too.”

“Yeah…That wasn’t my intention.”

“What are you going to do? You already have a cat at home, right?”

“Hajime’s mild and quite old, so I don’t think she’ll pick a fight with the kitten.”

Reona was perplexed. She’d never imagined that she, too, would be prescribed a cat.

Until now, she had never let any cat other than Hajime into her home. And Hajime, too, had never left the house except for the one time she had to go to the vet for her vaccinations; she was ignorant to the ways of the world and other cats. Reona had no idea how she would react to Shasha.

“Ms. Kajiwara?”

The nurse waved from the reception window.

Reona handed over the prescription and received a paper bag in return.

“Here are your supplies. There’s an instruction leaflet inside, which I advise you to read carefully.”

“I’ll carry it,”

offered Shousuke. He took the bag and pulled out the leaflet. They read it together.

“Name: Shasha. Female. Two months old. Munchkin. Feed moderate amounts of cat food in the morning and at night. Water bowl must always be full. Clean kitty litter as needed. This is a crucial time for developing social skills. Play-fighting with siblings will teach her about pain and restraint. It’s important she learns this so she doesn’t accidentally injure others when she’s older. Please keep her indoors. That’s all.”

It had said something similar in the leaflet Shousuke had received previously. For a cat owner, the instructions weren’t particularly useful. The bag contained only the bare essentials necessary to raise a cat.

It was such an unexpected turn of events, and Reona’s frustration grew at the clinic’s negligence. The doctor talked a lot about cats’ worlds, but wasn’t he essentially just shifting the responsibility of their care onto the patients? If the person entrusted with the cat was unreliable, it was only the cat who would pay the price.

She knew she was stubborn, but she confronted the nurse anyway.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit careless to be leaving cats in people’s care? Shasha is only two months old, and there should be many more instructions and precautions listed in the leaflet.”

“Please look up that information yourself. Now, take care.”

The nurse didn’t even glance up.

So unpleasant, thought Reona.

“I have a cat, so I generally know what to do. But that guy over there, he doesn’t know anything about cats and received exactly the same basic instruction leaflet. That’s awful.”

“Whether you do your own research on your prescription or follow the doctor’s orders really depends on the person, doesn’t it?”

“You’re absolutely right,”

murmured Shousuke from behind.

Reona shot him a sharp glare, but he pretended not to notice. She knew he was siding with the nurse because she was pretty.

The doctor is weird. The nurse is arrogant. I would’ve been better off not finding the clinic at all.

“Fine! I have a brother who works at a cat rescue, so I can ask him if I have any questions. My brother is very knowledgeable about cats. He’s an expert and super reliable.”

“Is that right? Well, as the doctor said just now, as soon as you’re able to say what you want to say, you can bring the cat back.”

“I don’t—”

“Take care.”

“What is with you?”

“Take care.”

No matter how forcefully Reona spoke, the nurse remained unfazed.

As they left the clinic, Shousuke smirked.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you lose an argument.”

“That nurse makes me so mad!”

The pet carrier jiggled.

“Oh, sorry! I’m not mad at you, Shasha. I’m angry with everyone but you—the doctor, the nurse, myself, Shousuke.”

“Me, too? Well, I guess I started it all. But it’s probably good that you came to the clinic with me. It feels like you were meant to come.”

“Not true. I don’t even know why I said what I said just now.”

Reona fell silent. Shousuke didn’t press further.

“What about the cat? If it’s too much for you, I can look after her at my place.”

“No, it’s fine. She was prescribed to me, so I’ll take care of her at my place. I won’t pass her off.”

“But won’t your parents mind?”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

Reona wasn’t concerned about her father, who simply wasn’t interested in cats. The real challenge was her fusspot mother. Clutching the pet carrier close to her chest, Reona turned to Shousuke.

“Thanks for walking me home. Don’t worry about Shasha.”

“If things don’t work out, call me. You can leave her at my place.”

“It’ll be fine. I just checked—my brother’s back at his apartment.”

She saw Shousuke off, then stepped into her house. Her father wasn’t home yet, and her mother was washing dishes in the kitchen. She appeared to be in a good mood, but the moment she saw Reona, her face crunched into a scowl.

“Really, you are too much! Tomoya made a rare visit home, and you just go off somewhere. That was so insensitive of you.”

I have plans, too, you know! Reona would usually have snapped back at her mother, but today, she left it. She felt guilty for having declared she hated her mom, even if she hadn’t said it directly to her.

“I had plans with Shousuke from before.”

“Oh, Shousuke. I’m sure he’s having a tough time with exams, but life is even harder in the real world. Just look at Tomoya—he didn’t have to work at such a demanding place like the cat rescue center. Tomoya’s such a sensitive boy, so I’m sure he’s going through a lot.”

Tomoya. It was always Tomoya with her mother. She always found a way to bring him up. This, too, would have normally irritated Reona, but today, she couldn’t help but smile at how everything was going as she had expected.

She set the carrier on the floor. She had only ten days with the cat and didn’t want to spend that time arguing. She opened the carrier door and gently pulled the kitten out.

Shasha truly resembled a fur ball. Perhaps she was feeling nervous, as her fur was fluffed up as if charged with static. Her ash-blue eyes were wide with bewilderment. Her forepaws, resting in Reona’s hands, looked like a baby’s clenched fists.

“Oh, dear.”

Her mother, too, looked bewildered.

“What is that?”

“Cute, right? It’s a Munchkin, a popular breed.”

“No, I mean, where did you get it from? How could you when we have Hajime?”

Rather than anger or outright refusal, her mother displayed confusion.

Reona pressed her nose against Shasha’s.

“Do you think it’ll be a problem? Will Hajime be upset?”

“Of course!”

snapped her mother.

“She’ll be surprised by the sudden appearance of another cat.”

“I guess it can’t be helped, then. I’ll take her back to Tomoya.”

“What?”

Her mother’s voice changed.

“This cat’s from Tomoya’s cat rescue. I only have her for ten days before her new owner picks her up. But since she’s little and needs lots of care, he asked me to look after her.”

“Oh, I see. If that’s the case, then…”

“I guess it won’t work. I’ll talk to Tomoya and tell him to come take her—”

“Wait, what are you saying? Tomoya already has a cat at his place, and he’s swamped with work. Why don’t we just keep her here? Such a small kitten…No, no, Tomoya can’t handle her.”

“Really?”

It was just as Reona had expected. Her mother inadvertently redirected her anger toward her in support of Tomoya. Typically, this would have irked her, but today, it made her smile.

Her mother observed Shasha from a distance.