Wilfred

“At this point, I think Wilfred hates me,” Daniel said, kicking off his shoes in the hallway. He walked to the kitchen and placed two heavy shopping bags on the table, flexing his hands in relief.

“He doesn’t hate you,” Olivia insisted, following him into the kitchen with two shopping bags of her own. “He just needs to get to know you.”

“How’s he going to do that if he always leaves when I come round?”

Daniel started passing Olivia the fridge items from the bags. He’d learned not to put anything away himself; Olivia had a fridge system she was quite particular about.

“He’ll decide when he feels comfortable with you.” Olivia slotted the bottle of milk into the fridge door and turned to face him, cheeks pink from the exertion of walking home with the shopping. “It takes him a while to warm up to new people.”

“Has it taken him this long with anyone else?” Daniel asked, handing her a pack of bacon and a punnet of mushrooms.

Olivia was silent as she put the items in the fridge and then closed the door. “No,” she admitted.

“Exactly.”

Olivia started filling the kettle.  “Tea?”

“Love one.” Daniel rooted around in one of the shopping bags trying to find the packet of chocolate chip cookies.

On their first date, he and Olivia had engaged in a friendly but heated debate about the best biscuit to dunk in tea. He was a staunch defender of the humble Digestive, while she argued that Jaffa Cakes were superior – an opinion that very nearly caused him not to ask her on a second date. Since then, they’d embarked on an experiment, buying different biscuits for dunking every week to determine which was the true winner. They were judged on various criteria including how easily they fitted into a mug and length of dunking until they started to crumble. Olivia had made a spreadsheet.

The kettle started boiling and Olivia suddenly wrapped her arms around his waist, looking up at him with serious blue eyes.  “He’ll warm up to you,” she said earnestly.

“I know, I’m only joking.” Daniel hugged her into him, tipping his head to rest gently on hers.

“He’s just a sensitive boy, it has to be on his terms.”

“I understand,” he said.

The truth was, Daniel didn’t understand. He’d been dating Olivia for months now and was yet to have a positive interaction with Wilfred. He knew it was Wilfred’s house and it must be strange for him to accept someone new, but at this point the dislike seemed personal. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t really care that Wilfred didn’t like him. But he did care that Olivia cared. It was important to her that they got along and so Daniel had tried his best to win Wilfred over. It had proved fruitless so far.

Daniel let out a sigh. He’d never been a cat person.

~~~

Wilfred couldn’t believe Daniel was back already. He had barely recovered from the man’s last visit and here he was again just to ruin Wilfred’s day. Wilfred had been napping on the sofa when Daniel had entered the house, at which point he’d thrown himself off the cushion and darted out of the cat flap in the kitchen. He sat on the garden shed now, tail slowly swishing with irritation as he watched Daniel and Olivia hugging through the kitchen window. Movement below him caught his eye and he looked down into the neighbour’s garden to see the black cat whose humans called her Lily. Wilfred thought this was an odd choice of name given that lilies were toxic to cats – you never met a human called Cyanide.

Lily sat down, her bushy tail tapping the grass as she looked up at him pointedly. He and Lily had a mostly peaceful arrangement of territory sharing. In the morning, the gardens in this area were his to roam in, in the afternoon she had right of way. It meant they avoided running into each other and the inevitable arguments that would follow. Over his shoulder, the sun was hovering in the west and Wilfred knew the polite thing to do was leave. He stood up and stretched, digging his claws into the rough shed felt roof. With a slow blink to Lily as an apology he nimbly hopped onto the fence, trotted towards the house and jumped down onto the patio. Bracing himself, he pushed his head through the cat flap.

Olivia crouched down, holding out a hand to greet him. Wilfred stepped inside, rubbing his cheek on her hand and glaring at Daniel who was leaning against the kitchen counter. He could smell the sweet scent of a cookie on Olivia’s fingers but it was almost masked by the stench of Daniel’s cologne, a heavy cloying odour that offended his nose.

Daniel took a step towards them, tall and intimidating, and Wilfred bolted through the hallway and up the staircase. Once upstairs he leapt onto the wardrobe in the spare bedroom where Olivia had kindly put an enclosed bed for him. Tucking himself into a dark corner, he curled up and tried to ignore the irritating buzz of Daniel’s voice downstairs.

~~~

Daniel stepped into Olivia’s house on his own. He’d never been here without her before but had to pick up his headphones for a work trip he was going on; there was no way he was sitting on a train for two hours without them.

As he walked into the living room he saw Wilfred lying on the back of the sofa.

“Hi Wilfred,” Daniel said, picking his headphones up off the coffee table. The ginger cat watched him but did not run away. “Can I say hello?” He reached out a hand and without warning Wilfred lashed out with incredible speed. Daniel snatched his hand back, blood starting to ooze from two parallel cuts on his knuckles where the claws had caught him. Wilfred stayed where he was but hissed at him, tail thrashing.

“You little git, I’m just trying to stroke you!” Daniel protested, backing off. It didn’t matter what Olivia said, he and this cat were never going to get along.

~~~

Wilfred heard Daniel’s car engine start and then grow quieter as he drove away. His breathing slowed and he yawned to try and dissipate some tension. The automatic feeder clicked, a portion of biscuits rattled into the bowl and he sprang off the sofa. If Daniel had arrived at any other time Wilfred would have left the room like he usually did, but knowing the timer on the feeder was due to go off Wilfred hadn’t wanted to give up his proximity to his food. Just because he hadn’t run away it did not mean he was inviting Daniel to make contact with him, the audacity of the man was unbelievable. Wilfred became aware he was eating too quickly, something he did when he was stressed, and paused to let his stomach settle.

Wilfred had been thinking about his first human, Jessica, recently. He’d met her when he was 8 weeks old, his entire world the safe confines of her small flat. Chris came into their lives as Wilfred reached adulthood and moved in with them shortly after. Wilfred had taken to him quickly, happy to be fussed or sit on his knee.

Chris first threw something at Wilfred when he was drunk. Wilfred saw the empty beer can come flying towards him and jumped two feet into the air from fright. This amused Chris. After that Wilfred had things thrown in his direction just to make Chris laugh. The tail pulling started next, Wilfred would be fast asleep and then woken by a sharp pain at the base of his spine. Afraid of the torment, he hid on top of the kitchen cupboards, the only place Chris couldn’t reach him. Jessica had no place to hide though.

From the dusty cupboard tops Wilfred heard everything; crockery smashing, the thud of a skull against a wall, Jessica sobbing. When Chris left the flat or slept Wilfred would sneak out from his hiding place to use the litter tray and eat as much as he could. His inactivity and gorging packed fat onto his body and it became harder to jump back onto the cupboards. Sometimes the stress caused him to urinate outside of his litter tray which made Chris lash out even more. In his helplessness Wilfred started to groom himself excessively, licking over and over until he’d removed most of the fur from his belly and hindlegs.

Wilfred still loved Jessica, even though she had left him behind. He understood because if he’d had the chance to escape, he would have done the same thing. When he realised Jessica wasn’t coming back, Chris had stuffed Wilfred into a box and dumped him in the street. It was the scariest day of his life.  

Months later in the rescue shelter, Olivia chose him. He was fed at the same time every day, never disturbed when he was sleeping and had the freedom to come and go as he wished. Wilfred realised he didn’t have to be afraid anymore, his weight returned to normal and his fur grew back.

When Daniel came into their lives Wilfred was wary. Olivia might not know the pain a man could cause but Wilfred did and he would never blindly trust again.

~~~

Pushing Olivia into the house in a wheelchair hadn’t been how Daniel had pictured them moving in together.

She’d been hit by a car while cycling to the library. Apparently, the idiot driving had somehow missed her high-vis jacket and ploughed into her from a side road. She’d broken her leg and her collar bone as she was thrown from the bike. Thank God she was so strict about always wearing a helmet.

With one arm in a sling and one leg in a cast she wouldn’t be able to manage living on her own. Daniel immediately offered to let her move in with him so he could take care of her but she asked if they could both live at her house instead. Because of the cat.

“Daniel, you really don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Olivia said as he wheeled her up the front path to the house. “I know it’s a lot to take on.”

She had a point; as well as cooking, cleaning and helping her move around the house there were also the once daily anti-clotting injections he’d have to give her. Daniel knew the next few week were going to test them, but he believed their relationship would survive.

“What’s a lot to take on is living in a house with no Sky Sports.” He quipped.

“Daniel!” She swivelled in the chair to smile at him.

“I’m serious, not being able to watch sport on the TV scares me way more than looking after you.” They reached the door, Daniel stepped forward with the keys, then turned to Olivia, dropping his humorous tone, “I want to do this, Liv.”

She took his hand. “Okay then, let’s do it.”

~~~

Wilfred waited in the hallway, listening to Olivia’s muffled voice behind the front door. She hadn’t been in home in days and he’d been worried about her. A small part of him had wondered if she’d left him but he’d tried to tell himself that she would be coming back. The door swung open and Wilfred froze as Olivia entered sitting on a strange wheeled contraption. She looked pale. One of her arms was bound up in fabric, she held the other out to him and he could see the scabs where the skin had been scraped off her palm. Her left leg was encased in white and she didn’t seem to be able to move it. The scent of harsh antiseptic chemicals was nearly overwhelming but he could smell the bruising under her skin. Daniel entered the house behind her and shut the door.

Wilfred’s fur stood on end. Olivia tried to talk to him but Wilfred heard a strangled yowl burst out of him. He launched himself away, back feet desperately sliding on the smooth wooden floor before he gained traction and raced up the stairs. He practically flew onto the wardrobe in the spare room. It was happening again, Olivia was hurt, he wasn’t safe anymore. The urge to groom himself surged and he started licking his belly, then found he couldn’t stop.

~~~

Daniel sat down in the living room after putting a very tired Olivia to bed. When Wilfred had reacted so dramatically to her she had broken down in tears. Between her sobs she told Daniel how much it upset her to see Wilfred that way. Daniel held her, letting her cry as much as she needed to. When the tears stopped, he carried her upstairs and tucked the duvet around her. The poor girl was so exhausted she fell asleep immediately. As he bent to kiss her on the head he was overcome by such a rush of love for her it stunned him for a moment. He thought about the times she’d cooked risotto for him, his favourite dish, even though she didn’t like it. The first time she’d sung in front of him, belting out Don’t Stop Believing in the car, off key and beautiful. The way she tried to learn the baffling rules to rugby so she could watch the matches with him.

He opened his laptop and typed, “cats” into the search engine. Three hours later he drove to the pet shop with a list and determination.

~~~

Wilfred stayed on top of the wardrobe for most of the day, only creeping into Olivia’s room to snuggle with her when Daniel left the house. Strange rustlings echoed around the house but eventually everyone else was asleep and Wilfred padded down the stairs suspiciously. There was a pleasant smell in the air that he couldn’t quite place, it was comforting and for some reason it reminded him of his mother. He entered the kitchen and saw a huge cat tree in the corner. He used to have a cat tree when he lived with Jessica but it was puny compared to this one. Stretching to his full height he put both front paws onto one of the rough stems and raked his claws down it. It was immensely satisfying. He leapt up and explored all platforms. Sitting at the very top he felt like the king of the world. He could get used to this.

~~~

Daniel tightened the last screw and stepped back to admire his handiwork; he could now add building cat shelves to his CV. With Olivia’s enthusiastic permission he’d waited until Wilfred had left the house that morning and screwed the array of platforms, ladders and beds into the walls of the living room. Now the room looked like a playground. Over the past few days he’d spotted the ginger cat lounging at the top of the cat tree and Daniel wanted him to have access to high up spaces in this room too.

As if Daniel’s thoughts had summoned him, Wilfred appeared in the doorway. He sniffed at the packaging strewn across the floor and peered into one of the now empty cardboard boxes. A little hop and he was inside, looking very pleased with himself as he sat down.

Daniel took a chance. He lifted a wand toy with a little feathered ball hanging from a long piece of string and dragged it across the floor in front of the box. Wilfred looked at it idly at first, then lowered his head to watch intently over the cardboard, pupils dilated. His back end did a little wiggle and he pounced, leaping out of the box onto the ball, pinning it to the ground with both paws. Daniel pulled up, lifting the ball out of Wilfred’s grasp and the cat nimbly sprang into the air to catch it again. Daniel had to admit, it was both impressive and cute.

He couldn’t wait to tell Olivia.

~~~

Wilfred chirruped a greeting as Olivia was carried into the kitchen by Daniel and carefully placed on a dining room chair. He gracefully leapt from the cat tree onto Olivia’s lap and she scratched that spot under his chin that he loved. For the past few hours, Wilfred had watched as Daniel bustled about cooking, and now he placed two amazing smelling plates on the table and sat down.

With an uncharacteristic burst of confidence, Wilfred hopped down and approached Daniel, rubbing his cheek on Daniel’s leg under the table. Daniel leaned down and Wilfred fought the instinct to run away. There was a piece of food in his fingers. Wilfred sniffed it and determined it was roast chicken. He delicately took it and chewed, it was delicious.

Daniel wasn’t so bad really.

~~~

Daniel sat on the sofa, arm around Olivia who was leaning on his right shoulder. They were on their fourth episode of a trashy TV show, full and sleepy after their big dinner. Two mugs of tea sat steaming on the coffee table with this week’s biscuit choice: shortbread. He was going to marry this girl.

Wilfred uncurled from the cushion next to him and stretched, placing one paw on Daniel’s leg as he did so. “Hi Wilfie,” Daniel said softly. Wilfred blinked his amber eyes slowly at him and then astounded Daniel by climbing onto his lap.

Olivia and Daniel shared a look of amazement as the cat lay down, closed his eyes and started to purr contentedly.

“You’ll have orange fur on everything you own now,” Olivia whispered.

That was fine by him. Daniel looked at the small creature nestled in his lap and smiled; maybe he was a cat person after all.