No Ordinary Cats Solo Pet

Justin stepped into the small shop, its atmosphere a welcome relief from its unusually cold surroundings. There didn’t seem to be many people in just then apart from the shop-keepers. He walked past them towards the animals. He knew what he would probably end up getting, but wanted to explore all his options anyway. Of these, they were many. Not all of which were particularly pleasant.

There was an entire section devoted just to spiders. Why? Where would you keep them. He was personally not as afraid of spiders as some people were, but even then, many people around you would despise having a large hairy spider living near them.

He walked past several large balls of fur that looked more like soft toys than actual living creatures. There were also at least three different types of rats. Despite them supposedly being out of fashion?

He stopped in front of a large selection of owls. One in particular caught his attention. A large, white owl with striking yellow eyes. An artic owl … or a snowy owl – he wasn’t sure which. Their descriptions were exactly the same. Actually, weren’t these two names for the same animal? Why would you label the same species as two different ones? Maybe he was misremembering.

Should he get an owl? He rather liked owls. They were interesting, and useful. But he didn’t really know what he would do with a bird. He’d never had any kind of bird before, so he didn’t know how to keep or care for one. Especially as, at Hogwarts, he would have to do a lot of this himself.

He didn’t want to decide just then, so he instead moved past. This entire section of the store was full of just cats of all different sizes, and colours. Not shapes, they all have the same general figure. There were silver ones, and grey ones, and yellow ones, and … more grey ones. And this one thin one that looked like it was all black-and-white except for the eyes.

He looked around, but none of them seemed very interesting. They were all just ordinary looking cats. Some people went crazy over any cat, no matter what they looked like. That wasn’t him. After a while, his gaze landed on one smallish grey cat sitting in a cage near the back. Unlike most of the others around it, this one didn’t look loud, annoying or snobby, the default emotions of the average domestic cat. It reminded him for some unknown reason, of Tuppence. Why? They looked nothing alike. Nevertheless, he immediately knew what pet he would be getting.

Word Count: 437
What animal do you wish to purchase? Egyptian Mau
What do you want to name it? Marple
Is this a boy or a girl? Girl
What is your pet's date of birth? 20/05/2020