The cat has a fever.
Kuze should have thought of it long ago. The cat is not a cold-resistant animal. Wrapped in a blanket, he followed him everywhere. Not only did he climb on the roof to blow the cold wind in the middle of the night, but he also fell into the snow. Even for a cat, that's too capricious.
- Not that Kuze doesn't like it.
Kuze draped the new blanket on the sofa a little tighter. The cat's face came pitifully out of the blanket, eyes half-squinted listlessly, eyelashes quivering slightly from the heat from time to time.
"… So hot."
The cat murmured, followed by a series of unintelligible "meow" sounds, reminding Kuze of a young child who babbled, unconsciously returning to his infancy in the pain, and using unspoken tones to the closest people help. He stroked the top of the cat's hair regularly, trying to give it some comfort. After the cat squinted and fell asleep again, Kuze got up and changed the ice pack for the cat, and took the thermometer, ready to wait for the cat to wake up and measure the cat's rectal temperature again.
Cats are very resistant to taking anal temperature. When Kuze mentioned this at first, the cat immediately turned pale with fright, obviously burning and stupefied and trying to escape softly. However, it couldn't escape when it didn't have a fever, and it was even more impossible to escape easily now, and it was quickly suppressed by Kuze to resist.
Kuze didn't want to force the cat like that either. But he did his homework on the Internet and knew that cats can only measure ear or rectal temperature, and ear temperature requires a special cat to use an ear thermometer. Kuze had no choice.
If Kuze had little knowledge of cats' medical knowledge, then cats had no self-knowledge at all. Seeing Kuze bring the thermometer, it shrank as far as possible into the blanket, while shouting weakly: "Don't that... I'll use my mouth, or my arm."
Kuze knew that by "mouth" and "arms" the cat meant mouth and armpit temperature. A few days before the fracture of the forearm, he was worried about infection and took oral temperature every day. The cat probably saw it at that time, so he left an impression. He pinched the back of the cat's neck, preventing it from dodging, and explained patiently, "You are a cat. Cats can't take oral temperature, for fear that you will bite off the thermometer."
The cat looked at Kuze with an unbelievable look, and seemed eager to refute. But it was so weak that it meowed twice, and didn't even have the strength to slap Ku Ze's hand away. In the end, it just angrily buried its head between its forelimbs, ignoring people like an ostrich. That look was really pitiful and cute, Kuze looked at it a few more times, and smoothed down the cat's back soothingly before getting up to disinfect and lubricate the thermometer.
The first time to measure the rectal temperature was the biggest battle. After that, the cat didn't resist so much, but every time the rectal temperature was measured, his face was ashes. Kuze looked straight and funny, but at the same time, he also felt some guilt because of the cat's unwillingness. He didn't understand why the cat resisted so much, just as he didn't understand why the cat ran away in the first place. Fortunately, they now speak the same language and can communicate, so they no longer have to suspect and misunderstand each other.
Kuze got straight to the point and went directly to ask the cat why he was unhappy. And the cat just stared at him angrily: "Don't you know?"
"Well, I don't know." Kusei replied honestly, "It's the first time I have a cat. What should you eat, what you like, what should you do when you're sick... It's all from the Internet."
Kuze answered in a sincere and sincere manner, which somehow made the cat even more angry. The cat drilled into the blanket, leaving only the back of Kuze's head. Kusei stared at the golden head, wanting to break it back and reason with it, and then remembered the sullen appearance of the cat just after the fever subsided, and finally let it rest.
For this cat, Kuze will never be able to find it again, the attitude of "send it away if you don't appreciate it" at the beginning. It accompanied him for a month, its softness and warmth, its pride and willfulness, the way it curled up on Kuze's lap and dozed off, the way it practiced speaking awkwardly, the way it stumblingly expressed its demands, the way it maintained inexplicable self-esteem, Even the appearance of being overly alert at first... At this moment, all of this seems alive and lovely.
Kuze sometimes even rejoices in the snow accident, otherwise he would have sent the cat to town and his life.
Of course cats know nothing. It also fell asleep, allowing the natural mechanisms of sleep to repair fatigue after a high fever. Kuze moved the computer to the living room, and while making a purchase plan for the spring, he turned his head to look at the cat's back from time to time. By the time he noticed, there were already some common pet medicines and cleaning supplies listed in the document. He was even thinking about making a cat litter for the cat. Instead of a cardboard box or a sofa, the cat should have a nice nest, constructed of good-textured wood, stacked with soft pillows and blankets.
There happens to be a chainsaw in the garage, and the wood doesn't know it. The last time Kuze took care of these unnecessary carpentry work was more than three years ago. The memory of that time is like a mirror, which has been covered with dust by living alone for too long, and it is hazy and difficult to see clearly. The only certainty is that many of the skills Kuze learned from his grandfather when he first came here are already rusty, which is really sad. He took the matter to heart and went to the garage to check it out the next day.
... it really doesn't work anymore.
Kuze marked the two logs next to the storage racks deep in the garage in turn, and planned to pull them out and discard them when the snow melted in spring. It was three and a half years ago that he personally cut down under the guidance of his grandfather. He originally wanted to use these pieces of wood to make a set of beautiful wooden chairs for the backyard, and he also specially made design drawings for this purpose. Later, Grandpa's condition deteriorated rapidly, Kuze was not in the mood to deal with it, and these logs were randomly piled up in the garage. It has now been wet and deformed.
There are still a lot of messy materials in the garage. Two weeks ago, Kuze made cardboard boxes out of waste cardboard piled up on the side of the storage rack, trying to please the cat, but unfortunately the cat didn't appreciate it. His fingers brushed the thick dust of the shelf. Before the cat came, Kuze had no motivation, and the garage had not been cleaned for a long time. Now it seems that it is better to use it. He clucked around along the storage racks and found a lot of expired tools such as clumping all-purpose glue and a whole box of rusty nails.
Kuze took note of the replacements he needed to buy as he cleaned up. When he was done writing, he was slightly ashamed holding a long list of replacements. He folded the list into his pocket and finished off by cleaning the ground with a broom. Halfway through the sweep, Kuze heard a cat's voice.
"… What are you doing?" The cat stood by the side door of the house that led to the garage. Not long after its fever subsided, its expression still looked a little sluggish, and its voice was muffled.
Kuze smiled at it and pointed to the log in the corner: "I want to make a nest for you."
Across the garage, Kuze could still clearly see the cat roll his eyes. He laughed and said, "Don't you want it?"
"No—" The cat wanted to explain, but as if he didn't know where to start, the lips opened and closed twice in vain, and finally just meowed angrily. Kuze was also used to his habit of meowing when his vocabulary was limited, and secretly believed that the cat was cursing with meowing words at this time. Kuze had a strict family education and never used swear words, but somehow, when he thought of the scene of this cat being aggressive, cursing and meowing indignantly, he didn't resent it, he just thought it was cute.
"Don't come in yet, there are iron nails on the ground." Kuze told the cat while looking for tools. He leaned his broom against the wall and was about to get the dustpan when the cat had already sent the garbage cart with the dustpan behind him.
Kuze was a little surprised, worried that the cat had stepped on the sawdust and iron nails all over the floor, and immediately lowered his head to check, but unexpectedly found that the cat was wearing shoes.
It was said to be "wearing shoes", but the size of Kuze's old slippers was really too big, completely out of proportion to the cat's feet, and it was funny like rowing a boat. Even so, it is quite amazing that a cat can have the awareness of "actively wearing shoes". Kuze stared at the cat's feet for a long time, forgetting to sweep the sawdust into the dustpan.
The cat shrank back uncomfortably and muttered, "What are you looking at?"
"Look at you." Kuze's gaze turned to the cat's face. He sincerely said, "As a cat, you are too smart."
"...Sometimes, I don't know if you're flirting or serious."
The cat struggled to utter the new word "flirting". Kuze has absolutely no idea where it came from. Or did you find it on purpose? Thinking of this, Kuze wanted to laugh a little. He held back. Cats rarely say such long sentences, and there is a new word. Kuze thought that it probably took a long time to practice in his own mind to speak so fluently. For this reason, he moved in his heart and wanted to touch the cat's head. However, Kuze's hands were full of oil and dust, and he didn't want to stain those golden hairs.
Kuze decides to give the cat some praise.
"Before I met you, I didn't like cats at all." He looked at the cat and said sternly, "In my impression, cats only get together and make noise, have no discipline, and always look at people with malice. I hate it. Cats, hated by cats too. But you are special."
The cat obviously did not expect Kuze to say such a thing. It suddenly took a half step back, and its eyes wandered left and right, but it refused to look at Kuze. Its eyelashes fluttered embarrassingly, and it was terribly cute. Kuze is not a person who is good at expressing his feelings, and he feels a little ashamed of his heartfelt words. But the cat's performance was totally worth his effort.
Kuze lowered his head and concealed the smile that overflowed from the corners of his lips involuntarily. He swept the sawdust and nails into a pile and stuffed them all into the trash can on the trolley. The cat, who was standing dumbfounded, only woke up from Kuze's words at this moment, took over in a panic, pushed the cart towards the garage wall, and hurried away from Kuze as if running away.
Kuze looked at the cat's back with a funny look, and didn't rush to follow. He first carefully washed the dust off his hands, wiped away the water droplets slowly, and then lightly walked, tiptoeing after the cat. When he was about to be noticed by the cat, Kuze suddenly picked it up from behind.
The cat screamed in fright.
From the frail post-injury period to the most recent recovery period, the cat ate significantly more and recovered somewhat from the morbid weight loss. The cat's weight was several pounds heavier than the snow at the time, and Kuze couldn't hold it with one hand. Fortunately, the cat was only startled at first, but after reacting, he quickly hugged Kuze's neck and adjusted his center of gravity with him.
"Say hello!" the cat complained. It carefully avoided the splint on Kuze's right arm and fixed itself on Kuze's left shoulder. Kuze smiled and squeezed the cat's palm.