as if plotting his next move.
“Erwin, you’re being ridiculous,” Hazel said.
I took a step closer, but he leapt from the shelf. While he was still in midair, I tossed the towel, draping it over him. He landed, and both Hazel and I dove to the floor to grab him before he could get away.
My hands caught nothing but towel and the streak of gray fur disappeared into the kitchen.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
I got up and helped Hazel to her feet. She adjusted her glasses and gave me a determined nod.
With towels once again in hand, we moved slowly, side by side, toward the kitchen. Erwin sat on the counter, watching us, his squished-nose face expressionless. He was a demon cloaked in a mass of soft gray fur, his green eyes mocking our failure.
“Erwin, how did you get up there?” Hazel asked.
“He’s been fucking with you.”
“What?”
“Look at him. He can get on the furniture anytime he wants. He tricked you into believing he can’t jump.”
Hazel gasped. “Naughty kitty.”
Erwin just blinked.
“Why don’t you get closer,” I said, lowering my voice. Which was a weird thing to do, considering Erwin was a cat and couldn’t understand me. “Try to grab him. He’ll jump down from the counter and I’ll catch him before he can get out of the kitchen.”
“Good plan.”
She took slow steps forward, murmuring soft reassurances to her evil cat. I backed up, ready to pounce as soon as he tried to make a run for it.
He dashed across the counter, sending a metal measuring cup clattering to the floor. Hazel’s towel just missed. Then I watched the impossible. Erwin, the cat shaped like a football with legs and a head, leaped onto the top of the refrigerator.
The joke was on him. Now he had nowhere to go.
He darted back and forth across the top of the fridge, but I reached up and scooped him into the towel.
“Don’t let go,” Hazel said and ran back to the bedroom.
I expected Erwin to try to wriggle free, but he went still when I cradled him against my chest. He poked his flat-nosed face out of the towel and his whiskers twitched.
She brought out the pet carrier. I deposited Erwin inside, and she quickly shut the door so he wouldn’t escape. He didn’t meow or claw at the latch. Just settled down on the blanket, staring us down with his bright green eyes.
“Thank you.” Hazel brushed her hair back from her face and adjusted her glasses. “I can take it from here.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I know.” I tucked her hair behind her ear. “But you might need help getting him back in. I’ll just be there as backup.”
For a cat who’d been so difficult to get into a pet carrier, Erwin was remarkably well behaved once we left Hazel’s apartment. He sat quietly on the short drive to the vet’s office. Hazel handed him to me while she checked in at the front desk. I set him down and reached my fingers through the wire door to pet the top of his head.
The wait wasn’t long. A vet assistant brought us back to an exam room. There, we had the opposite problem. Erwin didn’t want to come out of the carrier. After a few tries, Hazel managed to coax him out and set him on the table.
He hissed at the vet assistant. Then hissed at the vet when she came in to examine him.
“I see the problem,” the vet said. “He has an abscessed tooth. That’s why he’s not eating. He needs a round of antibiotics and then we’ll remove the tooth. But after that, he should be fine.”
Hazel’s shoulders relaxed. “Good. I was so worried it was something worse.”
The vet left again and Hazel scooped Erwin up in a blanket. He buried himself in it, like he was trying to hide. Poor kitty.
The vet assistant came back and went over the instructions for administering Erwin’s antibiotic. Hazel listened carefully, all while cradling her blanket-wrapped cat in her arms.
“Thanks for your help,” Hazel said when she’d finished.
“Just make sure he finishes the prescription,” the vet assistant said. “And get him in here for regular check-ups.”
“I bring him in once a year.”
“Really?”
Hazel’s back straightened. “I’m sure my records show that I do.”
The vet assistant waved a hand, as if dismissing Hazel’s comment. “Considering how much weight you let him gain, I figured you didn’t bother with preventative pet care.”
I winced, waiting for Hazel to fire back that Erwin wasn’t fat,