Caroline and the Missing Kitty - Caroline in the City Fansite

Caroline and the Missing Kitty

by unknown author

Caroline can't find Salty anywhere and worries something happened to her.

Richard was in an uncharacteristically decent mood that morning. He wasn't sure just why, but the little annoyances that usually started building the minute he exited his apartment were fewer, and the weather was comfortable-a crisp autumn breeze fluttered among the buildings of downtown Manhattan. His typical urge to cross the street without looking was subdued, and Caroline's building had never looked so inviting.

Now that she was officially his girlfriend, days like this were slowly becoming more commonplace. The feeling was somewhat alien to him, but he was quickly discovering how much he appreciated it.

Looking up at the windows of her loft, he almost smiled, but caught himself before he allowed such a monstrosity to occur. It would be like putting a curse on the day before he'd had time to secretly enjoy it.

Pulling his key chain out of his pocket, the set of four keys jingled together musically as he slid the correct one in Caroline's lock. As he stepped inside, he did not notice the small, furry creature scramble past his feet and into the hall. He was too caught up in the moment.

"Hey, Richard," Caroline called from upstairs, still busy in her bedroom.

"Morning, Caroline," he replied, doing his best to sound nonchalant as he closed the door behind him and hung up his trusty brown trenchcoat.

"I'll be down in a minute...I'm just finishing up my hair," Caroline yelled.

*Why does she need to do her hair? Richard wondered. It's not like she's going out anyplace special...it's just work as normal.*

Walking over to the coffeemaker, where a pot of freshly brewed coffee steamed invitingly as always, he suddenly realized that she was doing it for him. Little details like this were bound to change now...because things were different between them. Still, he was a little uncomfortable with the idea. He wouldn't say anything to her, of course, he'd simply sit there and quietly admire her hair, and the way her clothes hugged her body, and...

Richard was quickly jarred away from his thoughts by the sound of Caroline descending her staircase. He turned and glanced at Caroline, who looked more radiant than ever, simply dressed in faded jeans and a clean white shirt over a crimson tank top. Her hair was pinned up elegantly by several small barrettes, and she looked ravishing.

"Hey, you," she said shyly, moving towards him.

Richard's mouth went dry. "Hey," he replied softly, gathering her into his arms and planting a soft kiss on the top of her head. Caroline's arms held him tightly and he breathed in the sweet floral scent of her hair. Reluctantly, he broke the embrace and smiled down at her. Okay, so it was all right to smile at the woman he loved. That wouldn't curse the day...

"Morning," she replied.

Richard leaned down and rubbed his nose gently against hers, in an "Eskimo" kiss. She giggled, then kissed his lips.

"Okay, we should do some work, huh?" she said after a few moments.

Sighing, Richard agreed. "Yeah, I suppose we should." Secretly, (or perhaps not so secretly), he wanted to continue to adore her body with kisses and gentle touches, but they had made an agreement. Little affections like that often led to more, and he didn't think he'd be able to control himself if he didn't stop immediately.

He poured a cup of coffee for each of them, then followed Caroline over to the double drafting table that served as their workstation. They worked solidly for about 45 minutes until Caroline's stomach grumbled wildly.

She looked up at Richard in surprise. He just shook his head.

"You better go find something to feed that thing before it goes crazy and looses its venom on some innocent bystander," he cautioned.

"Richard," she laughed. She went into the kitchen and pulled a bag of blueberry bagels out of the fridge. "Want one?" she asked, motioning to the food.

"What's the flavor of the day? Moose, hotdog, liver?" he deadpanned.

"You could just say 'no thanks', y'know," Caroline sighed.

"No, you know very well I couldn't," he replied.

She shook her head, then prepared the bagel with cream cheese. She tore a little end off and looked around. "Salty? Want a piece of my bagel?" Caroline made a few kissy noises. "Salty?"

Usually, Salty would come running at that sound, but this time she did not appear. Caroline slid around the counter and peeked into the bathroom. "Salty?"

"Maybe she's trapped in one of the cupboards," Richard suggested. "You know how she likes to hide in dark, low-oxygen environments." He discovered himself partially enjoying the situation as Caroline searched for her lost pet. He wasn't much for animals, even Caroline's cat, although he found he could at least tolerate Salty most of the time.

"Very funny, Richard," Caroline shot back, not finding it funny at all, as she ran up the stairs. "Salty? C'mere kitty!"

Caroline pushed open her bedroom door and gave the room a cursory glance. "Salty?" She peeked under the bed. Nothing. In the bathroom-nothing. In her closet-nada.

Downstairs, Richard could hear her calling for her cat, and began to sense genuine worry creeping into her voice. *Sheez,* he thought, *she's probably just hiding somewhere...*

"Richard, Salty's gone!" she cried as she descended the stairs.

Richard shrugged. "I wouldn't sweat it."

"Come on, Richard," Caroline whined, opening up the space under her stairs and poking her head inside. "Help me find her. Please?"

Richard caved, as he always did when it came to Caroline. "Okay. I'll go check the roof." He knew Salty had a tendency to dash to the roof when she was upset and could manage to sneak her way out of the apartment. He grabbed his coat and headed outside.

Meanwhile, Caroline was becoming frantic. Unable to find Salty under the stairs, she stood up a little too quickly and swiped her head on the doorframe. "Oww," she cried, rubbing her head. She ran into the hall and pounded on Annie's door. "Annie? Are you in there? I can't find Salty!" A million thoughts raced through her mind: Salty ran away, she got hit by a bus, she got shot at by a thug, she was lying dead on the side of the road.... "Annie!" Her voice was laden with frustration. She pounded for awhile longer before she realized Annie was at rehearsal for "The Sound of Music".

"Nooooo!" she cried in frustration. Without bothering to close her apartment door, she chased after Richard towards the roof.

"Salty? Beast? Are you up here you pampered ball of fur?" Richard asked the wind.

Looking about, he could find no signs of Salty, or of any other animal that she might have chased. Suddenly Caroline appeared behind him, panting.

"Did you find her?" Caroline wondered, hopefully.

Richard studied her quickly. He was beginning to worry a little himself. The situation was beginning to look less and less promising. "Um, no. I didn't see her anywhere."

"Oh, no," Caroline whimpered, her voice breaking as she began to weep. "She ran away! Just like Pepper!" she sobbed.

Richard's eyes slipped shut in frustration. There was nothing he hated more than seeing and hearing Caroline cry. Suddenly the idea he'd toyed with that morning, that the world maybe wasn't so bad, departed and was replaced with a feeling of guilt, as if it was somehow his fault Salty was missing. He walked over to Caroline and held his arms out to her. She reached out for him and sobbed into his shirt.

"Richard! What am I going to do? We have to find her!"

"Shh, Caroline. Don't worry about it," he said softly, knowing she would anyway. "We'll find her."

"What if she's gone for good?"

"She'll come back, she always does." He began stroking her hair, but paused momentarily to pull some cobwebs out of it. A look of disgust crossed his face as he tried to get the dirty cobwebs off his hands, and it took a great deal of shaking to get them to fall off.

Caroline barely noticed, but she pulled away and wiped her eyes, the tears continuing to flow. "I have to go back to the loft...maybe there's somewhere I forgot to check!"

Somewhat puzzled, Richard watched her rush for the door, but soon followed closely behind her.

Caroline scrambled into her apartment, nearly colliding with Del, who stood with his back to her in the doorway.

"Oh hey, Caroline," Del called brightly as she rushed past him.

It took her a moment to realize she was being spoken to as she peered into the downstairs bathroom for a second time. Skittering back into the kitchen section of the loft, she acknowledged her visitors. "Del, Charlie," Caroline breathed. "Salty's gone!"

"What? Salty's gone?" Del repeated dumbly. "She's missing?"

"Yes, that's usually what someone means by 'gone'," Richard said, entering the loft behind him.

Charlie skated into the kitchen. "Did you look in the fridge?" he asked.

"Why would she be in the fridge?" asked Richard, giving Charlie a demeaning look as Caroline bounded up the stairs once more.

"I dunno, maybe she wanted some of the chicken you're defrosting. Personally, I thought it was delicious," he replied with confidence.

"Charlie, that's disgusting," Richard said, opening the fridge even though he knew it was a ridiculous idea. "You could get salmonella from that."

"Well, that's even better then...she was probably after the salmon. Cats love that, y'know," Charlie said, skating around to join Richard.

"No, Charlie, salmonella-" Richard broke off his sentence, knowing it would be a fruitless effort to explain the difference between food poisoning and fish to him. He closed the fridge door, finding nothing but thawing chicken, and shook his head.

Del pulled out his cell phone and began making calls to the police, the pound, anywhere he could think of. Richard and Charlie sat quietly on the couch, each considerably worried about Caroline.

Caroline's feet tread lethargically down the steps. Already there were dark circles forming beneath her eyes.

"She's gone," she stated quietly.

The three guys looked down at the floor almost in sync. They knew no one could say anything to change her mind now.

"Okay, look, Caroline," said Del, putting his arm around her shoulder. "I called the animal shelter, the police, your landlord, they all know she's missing. We'll all go out and look for her, okay?" Del put his phone back into the pocket of his sports coat. "Do you have a picture of Salty? Y'know, so we can make posters to put up?"

Caroline brightened a little bit, as she was hit with a resurgence of hope. "Yeah, actually, I do," she replied, digging through the mess beneath her section of the desk. She found several pictures of Richard she'd taken one day when she was bored, plus a handful of recent photos of her beloved cat.

She quickly busied herself making "Missing" posters for Salty, while Del, Charlie, and Richard huddled in her living room area.

"Richard, look," Del whispered. "We have a problem. Well, we might." He cast a quick glance over his shoulder at Caroline, making sure she wasn't listening.

"What problem?" Richard whispered back.

Del looked at Charlie, then shrugged.

Charlie took the initiative. "We have to get Salty back."

"...Spake Captain Obvious," growled Richard.

"No, really, Richard," Del continued, ignoring Richard's sarcasm, or maybe just unaware of it. He reached into a large cardboard box next to him and pulled out a white, fluffy ball of fur.

"What the hell is that?" Richard muttered coarsely.

"Stuffed Saltys...we already made 100,000 of them," said Del, tossing the toy over to Richard, who barely caught it. "We were going to surprise Caroline with these prototypes, but then this whole thing happened..." he trailed off, upset.

Richard looked down at the ball of fur that was barely recognizable as a cat, save for a small pink triangle of a nose and two tiny black beady eyes. "So what's the problem? You afraid she won't let you market these atrocities now?"

Del scratched his head. "Well, yeah, you know how she is..."

Richard tossed the toy back at Del and stood up, disgusted. He was through whispering. "Del, figure it out yourself." He went over to Caroline, who was finishing up a third version of the Missing poster. "You okay?" he asked, concerned.

Caroline sniffed. "I don't know, Richard. I don't know. I mean, there are lots of possibilities and all, but what if she doesn't come back? What do I do? Do I get another cat? Some other kind of animal? Should I give her a funeral? No, she's not dead. Not for sure. Should we all go out and look for her or should someone stay back and wait in case she comes home?" She sighed dramatically, then gasped. "Should I write her out of the comic strip?"

Her tirade of questions caused Richard, Charlie, and Del to cast worried glances among themselves, but her final inquiry made them all jump.

Charlie quickly covered the cardboard box of plushies with a blanket while Del diverted her attention. "No, Caroline, you don't want to do that," he assured her.

Caroline looked confused. "But maybe I should. That strip is about my life," she explained dramatically. "It would be a lie if I kept her in...besides, I don't know if I could write about her anymore anyway. It's too sad." A fresh batch of tears began to slide down her cheeks.

"Okay, Caroline, you stay here," Del suggested, taking the posters from her grasp. "Richard, Charlie and I will go out and look for her. We'll make some copies of these posters and put them up around the area. Maybe someone has already found her and is on their way here to drop her off."

Wiping the tears away from her eyes, she managed a "Sure."

Richard went over and gave her a hug. "Sit tight, we'll find her." She hugged him back. He motioned for Charlie and Del to get the plushies out of the loft.

"Thank you Richard."

"No problem," he replied, then followed Charlie and Del out of the apartment.

Once Richard had joined them outside in the hall, Del started in again. "If she writes Salty out of the strip, we'll never be able to sell these things!" he exclaimed. "We're going to go bankrupt!"

Richard groaned again. "Listen to you...she's lost her pet, this animal she loves more than anything on earth, and all you're worried is about money!"

Del sighed. "You're right, man."

Richard nodded. "Thanks Del."

"Here's the deal," Del said, looking at Charlie, as if Richard had not said a word. "You go to a pet store and find a cat that looks like Salty. Then we'll keep it as a backup in case we can't find the real one."

"Are you serious?" Richard asked, swiftly realizing that Del was quite serious. "Incredible," he muttered in anger, walking towards the stairwell.

"Where are you going?" Del called after him.

"To find Salty or to trip down a manhole to my premature death, whichever happens first," he replied, rounding the corner.

Charlie looked at Del quizzically. "Was Salty the black one or the orange one?"

He skated off, leaving Del in wonderment.

Richard began down Blecker Street, looking in dumpsters and trash bins, under parked cars, even down an open manhole he'd been lucky enough to avoid. No Salty. He hadn't held much hope when he'd set out; after all, Manhattan was a huge place, and there were so many people around that it would be easy for a cat to slip away unnoticed. But if she were noticed...then either someone would take her home and keep her for himself, or they'd maim and kill her. As much as Richard disliked animals, he did not wish harm on Salty, mostly because he knew how much she meant to Caroline.

As his thoughts drifted, he found himself in front of a pet store. Suddenly he recalled a conversation he'd had only a short while earlier.

"No, I'm not buying a fake Salty," he told himself. Strangely, he felt compelled to enter.

Del caught up with Charlie and the two of them made their way to Kinkos to run off copies of the posters. When no one was looking, Charlie swiped two staplers off the counter, and took off, with Del close behind.

"Did you have to steal staplers from Kinkos?" he grilled.

"Um, well, your Dad's office is uptown...that's too far, and I don't think Salty went that way. So I figured this is as good a place as any."

"Fine," agreed Del. "Here, gimme one."

Charlie handed him a stapler and half the stack of posters. "Let's split up and meet back at Caroline's when we're done."

Del was only half listening as he made eye contact with an attractive brunette getting out of a taxi about half a block up the street.

"Del?"

Del shook his head back and forth rapidly and looked back at Charlie. "Yeah, yeah, meet back here later. Seeya." And he was off, after the brunette.

Charlie sensed movement out of the corner of his eye, near the dumpster up the street. "Salty?"

On closer inspection, he found it was only a raccoon, but he managed to strike up an interesting conversation with it anyhow.

"Can I help you?" asked the woman behind the counter as Richard entered "Al's Pals."

"Um, yeah," he replied hesitantly. "I'm looking for a cat."

The woman, about five years his elder, medium-sized with auburn hair three shades darker than Caroline's, came out to greet Richard. Her nametag read "Alisha"; Richard assumed Al must be her nickname.

"What breed are you looking for? Anything specific?"

Richard paused a moment, thinking. "Hmm, I'm not sure what breed she was... A friend of mine lost her cat, and I'm trying to find one that kind of looks like it," he said sheepishly.

Al smiled at him in encouragement. "Can you describe the type of cat? Long hair, short hair? Color? Size? Come over here and take a look."

Richard followed her to the center of the store, where he observed several full-grown cats, alone in their cramped cages, and a giant cage with a litter of kittens that nursed from their mother.

"That one," he said pointing at the mother. "She kind of looks like that, only more grayish-white."

The woman opened the cage and pet the mother cat. She lifted one of the kittens from its mother and gently brought it up to her chest. It mewed loudly and piercingly, making Richard wince. "Like this?" she asked.

"Kind of, I guess," he replied, somewhat annoyed.

"These are purebred Himalayans," explained Alisha. "The kittens are not quite ready to be separated from their mother yet, but we can set one aside for you if you'd like."

Richard considered the idea. "Well, okay," he decided. "How much?"

"What?"

"How much does it cost for one of these things," he asked, gesturing to the kitten in her arms.

"With shots and pedigree papers, it will be somewhere around $550, maybe $600. I'd have to check the specifics for you." The kitten was no longer mewing as loudly.

Richard nearly choked. "600 bucks?!" he exclaimed, "For that?!"

Alisha was taken aback. "Why, yes, sir. This particular breed is very rare and purebreds are hard to come by." She watched him digest the information as he raked his hand through his sandy-colored hair. She kissed the kitten on the head, then set it back by its mother. "If that's out of your price range, we have other cats that are considerably less expensive."

"How much is 'considerably'?" Richard was almost afraid to ask.

"These are not purebred, of course, but still quite beautiful," she said, motioning to a set of shorthaired gray cats, about half Salty's size. "They're $230 each, $400 for the pair."

Richard shook his head. He'd had no idea cats were so expensive.

"Um, how about other animals? You have anything that's worth..." he trailed off as he flipped open his wallet. "$136.75?"

Alisha moved past the wall of fishtanks to the back of the store. "We have a large assortment of birds for low prices," she said.

Richard looked along the wall at the cages with the brightly colored birds inside. Most were labeled anywhere from $250-$1200 each, and Richard was once again astonished. "I thought you said-" he started.

"We have this parrot here, whose wing was badly damaged when he escaped a few months ago. He doesn't fly very well, which is a good thing inside a house, but it means we can't charge full price for him."

"How much?" Richard asked.

"$110, and I'll throw in the cage and a bag of birdseed as well, as long as he goes to a good home."

Richard curled his lip in discontent, but figured this was his best bet. "Does it talk?" he wondered.

"Only occasionally. He only knows two phrases: 'Here kitty!' and 'Mind your Aunt Mabel!'"

"Aunt Mabel?"

"He did have a previous owner, an old woman...but I don't know the specifics. I wouldn't worry about it," Alisha explained.

"Well, okay," Richard relented, a little wary. "I guess I'll take it."

"Splendid!" exclaimed Alisha. I'll get the paperwork, you bring him up to the counter."

Richard carefully picked up the cage. The parrot flapped its wings a bit but settled down. "Uh, does this thing come with an instruction manual or something?"

She laughed. "We have some excellent books over there on bird care," she said, gesturing to the opposite wall.

"Great, I'll take one of those too," he decided, as he watched the beady-eyed creature cock its head at him through the bars of the cage.

Alisha grabbed a book off the shelf for him and rang up his total. She babbled on about putting a towel over the cage at night and putting newspapers down to catch droppings, but Richard barely heard any of it. He handed her the insanely large amount of money and high-tailed it out of the store, feeling like a fool as he carried a caged parrot down the streets of Manhattan. He reminded himself it was all for Caroline, and somehow, that made the embarrassment bearable.

Caroline sat in front of her TV, watching her old tape of "Homeward Bound", wishing Salty were there with her. Even though her lap was empty, Caroline would glance down from time to time and tell the ghost of Salty that one of her favorite parts was coming up. She heard some scuffling outside and she jumped up, unsure of what to expect. She threw open the door, just in time to see Annie's door shutting across the hall.

"Annie!" Caroline yelled, and seconds later, Annie poked her head out the door.

"What?" she called back.

"Salty's gone!" Caroline had long ago stopped crying, but she was still extremely melancholy.

Annie sprang from her apartment and immediately her arms were around her best friend. "Oh no, honey, what happened?"

Caroline sighed. "I'm not sure. She was here this morning when I was making the coffee, but after Richard came in, I didn't see her. We looked everywhere, and Del and Charlie and Richard are still out there looking!"

"I'm sorry," Annie said sympathetically. "I'm sure she'll turn up somewhere."

"I hope so. I don't know what I'd do without her."

Caroline pulled back from the embrace. "Want to come watch 'Homeward Bound' with me? I made chocolate mousse pie."

Annie exhaled sharply. Caroline was baking-not a good sign. "Um, sure...but do I have to watch that movie again? I'm still trying to forget the last time."

Caroline smiled. "No, you don't have to watch the movie. Just come keep me company. I'm lonely without her."

"Okay, I'll be over in a sec." Annie and Caroline disappeared into their respective apartments.

Before Caroline had a chance to sit down, Richard appeared in her doorway with something in his hand, which he quickly set to the side of the door in the hallway where Caroline could not see it.

"Did you find her?" Caroline asked excitedly.

Richard licked his lips, uncertain of what her reaction would be to his gift. "Well, not exactly," he replied, watching her face fall and feeling terrible about it. "But, I did find something to keep you company."

Caroline's brow furrowed. "What?"

Richard's mouth turned up in a lopsided, awkward smile, and he picked up the cage, pulling back the towel that covered it. "Surprise?" he said, almost questioningly.

"A bird?" Her reaction was mostly confusion.

"Yeah, well, the pet store was all out of cats...and dogs," he lied, "and you already have fish...so this was the next logical step." He hoped he sounded convincing.

Caroline walked closer and peered into the cage. "A parrot?"

"Yeah, it's a parrot," he agreed. The bird gnawed at the bars of the cage with its beak.

"I don't know what to say, Richard." She sounded a little sad, and he wasn't sure if he'd made a horrible mistake or not.

"If you don't like it, I can take it back," he offered.

Caroline was already attached. "No, don't take it back, Richard. It's actually kind of-"

"Mind your Aunt Mabel!" the bird squawked.

Caroline was so surprised she nearly fell over.

"What the hell is that?" Annie asked, entering Caroline's loft.

"Richard bought me a parrot!" she exclaimed, a little more cheerful than before.

Annie knelt next to Caroline and looked into the cage. "What's its name?" she asked.

Caroline looked up at Richard. "Does it have a name?"

"Actually, I don't know. The woman in the store didn't say much about it." He was afraid to tell her he hadn't paid attention to anything the woman had said after "$110."

"So I can name it?" Caroline pondered, more to herself than anyone else. "What should I call it, Richard?"

"Uh, I don't know," he stammered. "Um, how about Allspice?"

Annie looked at him as if he was a moron. "Why the hell would you name a bird Allspice?"

"Well, Caroline has a predilection towards naming her pets after seasonings, so it just seems natural." Richard failed to mention the Allspice lecture and Allspice Rice Krispies treats he'd been subjected to during his first week on the job, but somehow knew Caroline would make the connection.

"Allspice," Caroline tried the name out to see how it felt. "I kind of like that." She put her face down closer to the cage. "Hi Allspice."

"Here, kitty!" Allspice said.

Caroline's face fell. "Yeah, if only that worked, Salty would be back here right now."

"Keep calling, bird, maybe she'll show up," said Richard.

Annie continued to kneel, fascinated. "Hey, Allspice, can you say 'Hey, sexy!'?"

"Mind your Aunt Mabel!"

"We'll have to work on that one," Annie said, standing up.

"Yeah, then all we have to do is teach it to say 'Next in Line' and you'll be all set," Richard remarked.

"Not until I teach it to say 'Here's two behind the ear'," she retorted, returning to her apartment.

Tag scene

Charlie had finished hanging up the posters, so he was meeting Del back at Caroline's like he'd promised.

As he was about to knock, he heard a strange voice, "Hey sexy!"

He looked around.

"Here's two behind the ear!" Charlie's blank expression grew panicky.

"Next in line!"

Charlie screamed and skated away.