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The two animal carriers made petulant mewing noises as Norm set them down under the stairs in his condo. This plaintive serenade continued as he got down two glass bowls and filled them with kibble that he had gotten from the foster agency. One of the kittens was on a special diet for a medical condition so, by default, they both were.

They were two years old and already had names. Not wanting to deprive them of the only thing they had, Norm decided that Anastasia and Tamara would do just fine and relieve him of burdening them with names that would gratify his ego. Their pathetic cries continued as he filled their pans with litter.

“Hey, girls. Welcome to your new home,” he said as he unlatched and opened the metal gates on their carriers. A set of golden eyes appeared in one and a set of green eyes in the other. They regarded Norm with great trepidation until he backed away and sat down in his armchair.

The first to emerge was Anastasia, a sleek gray tabby whose curiosity was the first to get the better of her fear. She sniffed the carpet in front of her cage, then turned her head towards the kibble that Norm had just laid out. She took three steps toward it, made eye contact with Norm, then ran under the futon.

Tamara’s exit was much more furtive. Only her calico-quilted head emerged and she did all of her preliminary exploration with her golden eyes. She also made eye contact with Norm, but froze initially instead of running. Norm glanced down at his watch to see what time it was, and Tamara was reduced to a blur whose endpoint was under the futon. Norm smiled, then walked to the galley kitchen to make himself some supper.

As Norm ate at his plastic Ikea table, he saw the two cats emerge from the futon and scurry to the bottom step of the stairs. They reached out and touched it with their paws, Anastasia first, then ran up to the top. Norm tracked the noise of their footfalls above him from the landing, to the bathroom, to his bedroom. He hoped that it was an indication that they were growing a little more comfortably in their new surroundings. He didn’t see nor hear from them for the rest of the night.

When he woke, he found that they had eaten half of the kibble he had provided them and peed in their litter boxes. Slowly, but surely, they ventured out from hiding. On the third day each of them presented themselves to him, one at a time. He was unsure what they wanted until they rubbed against him. He petted each one with gentleness, but after only a minute or so, they returned to their hidden lair.

Six weeks later he got a call from the foster agency saying that they had found the girls a home. Norm told them they already had one.