Ch15 - Follow-up Visit

Sparta is a healthy cat

Editor: Vez 

Sparta was not fully awake until they were out of horse. He nestled in the cat carrier and quietly cried. Miwu, where are we going? Haven’t I already taken a bath?

Xin Qin replied to Sparta across the bag. “Be good. We are taking a taxi there, it will not take long.”

Sparta cried out for a while, but when he saw Xin Qin remained unmoved, he laid down with droopy ears. Fortunately, they soon arrived at their destination and Xin Qin carried him out of the car. Sparta raised his nose to sniff the air, and soon recalled that this was the place where had he met Mochi for the first time. Mochi told him before that this place is called a hospital and a place where sick cats get treatment. Silly Miwu. Sparta called out, I am not sick. 

Xin Qin had made an appointment with Dr. Yu. After filling out a simple questionnaire at the front desk, he was soon brought into the examination room. As soon as they entered the door, the clinic mascot, Mochi, jumped down from the high cat stand,and went around the curve and the corners before reaching the cat carrier. The big black cat came to the carrier’s opening, stuck his nose and carefully sniffed, as if to identify the cat inside. Sparta yowled and patted the bag with his paw inside. Mochi also replied with a long trill, like they were greeting each other. 

Seeing this, Dr. Yu smiled without realising it. “Mochi is very friendly today. Have you two met already?”

You can consider him as my apprentice. Mochi triumphantly swung his tail.

Sparta unhappily hissed. Who are you calling your apprentice? Shameless.

This did not spoil Mochi’s happy mood at all. Instead, he spoke to the Dragon Li cat with great interest, “Hurry and get your human to let you out.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Are you stupid? Humans do not understand cat speech.”

“Tbe jgf atf raeqlv bcf. Aera rtbea j ofk alwfr jcv tf klii mbwf ab mbjz sbe.”

Hearing the new knowledge, Sparta rolled around the car carrier while meowing out. Sure enough, Miwu quickly appeared, opened the bag and carried him out. Unfortunately, Sparta was only able to stay pleased with himself for a short time before he was taken to a small room and pressed on the cold table. As Sparta was about to struggle, Miwu came over and helped the doctor hold his body. Miwu…Sparta cried out in grievance to which his human answered with a gentle caress. 

Hmph! Coaxing me will not work either, I do not like being pressed like this. His tail flicked in anger with this urge to twist his body and roll on the table. Turning to look at Miwu, he huffed out a breath. Seeing the other party’s serious expression, he decided not to argue with his human.  

Meow, just be quick, I wanna lick my paws. Miaow, don’t touch my ears. Miwu, my ears, Miwu! What is in my ear? Sparta’s ears twitched before he struggled with force, but his human did not loosen his hold on him, instead, the restraint became tighter. This made the Dragon Li cat unhappy. He curled into himself and pinned back his ears flat, trying to hide his head. 

Ktf Ggjubc Ol mja kjr abrrfv jcv aegcfv ys Gg. Te obg njglber fzjwlcjalbcr. Qtlif gfmbgvlcu fnfgsatlcu vbkc, Gg. Te fzqijlcfv ab Wlc Hlc jybea Vqjgaj’r qtsrlmji mbcvlalbc jcv njglber qgfmjealbcr ab xffq lc wlcv. Vqjgaj kjr qgbyjyis jogjlv jr tf milcufv bc ab Wlc Hlc klat jii tlr wluta, qeaalcu tlr obgftfjv lc Wlc Hlc’r jgwr jcv yegslcu tlr tfjv. Wlc Hlc qjaafv atf mja’r tfjv. “Pa klii yf bnfg rbbc. Gg. Te lr qgjlrlcu sbeg qjgalmeijgis ubbv tfjiat.”

Luckily, this exhausting physical checkup did not last long as Dr. Yu soon let go. As if suddenly relieved from a burden, Xin Qin hugged the wronged Dragon Li cat into his arms and kissed his head. 

Sparta leaned against the human’s chest for a while and finally decided to forgive his Miwu. Miwu began to talk with Mochi’s human, and Sparta just stayed put there with his head tilted as he could not understand what they were saying. He curiously studied the two talking humans.  

He didn’t realize when Mochi had entered the room, but the cat was currently sitting in a loaf on the empty medicine shelf. The big black cat was listening to humans’ conversation with great interest and simultaneously translated for Sparta, “Your human is saying he wants to adopt you.”

Sparta flicked his tail. What is this about? I have already assumed responsibility over my human.

“He said he likes you very much and thinks that you two were meant for each other.”

Sparta’s ears trembled in embarrassment and he buried his face into Miwu’s arms. Meow, why do you have to tell this to others, stupid Miwu. He shyly lowered his head only for a moment as he suddenly remembered something. He snapped his head towards Mochi and yelled, “Hey, Mochi. Be my ears. What name did my human give me?” 

Upon hearing the request, Mochi turned to look at the Dragon Li cat with his half-lidded eyes and asked, “Are you sure? Don’t you want to learn it yourself once you know the human language?”

Sparta faced the ground, quivered the tip of his tail and replied, “But I want to know what my human named me now so that I can introduce myself loudly to other cats.” 

“Even if your human gave you an ugly sounding name?”

“There is no way Miwu would give me an ugly name!” Sparta retorted loudly. 

Mochi chucked in meows, slowly stood up and said, “All right. Wait here and I will get the information.” After that, he jumped onto the desk by putting force on his hind legs, leaned close to Dr. Yu’s hand and listened to her and Xin Qin’s conversation.

Dr. Yu was sitting in front of the desk and helping Xin Qin, who had placed Sparta back on the table, with filling out the cat adoption form to keep for record. Cats with an owner were required to implant a chip, and the information of the owner and the cat needed to be registered in the chip, so in the event that the cat was lost, it could be quickly returned to its owner. Xin Qin pointed to the empty column for the cat’s name and said, “Sparta.”

Dr. Yu smiled and nodded. “A very domineering name. It matches him very well.”

Hearing this, the eavesdropping Dai Mochi immediately got up, jumped off the table and scurried to Sparta’s side, meowing, “Your name is Sparta.” 

“Sparta?” The Dragon Li cat repeated with wide eyes, asking hesitatingly, “Is it an ugly name?”

Dai Mochi wrinkled his nose, replied also somewhat hesitatingly, “I do not think so. I heard Dr. Yu praising your name. She is an amazing doctor by the way. She can judge what I want to eat just by the frequency of my tail’s swings. Therefore, if she thinks your name sounds good, then your name must be very good!”

Sparta was so excited that his hair stood up. He happily paced back and forth, intermittently purring.

Xin Qin heard the other’s movements and turned back at the Dragon Li cat. Thinking the cat was feeling restless, he went over and picked up the cat back into his arms. “We will be done very soon. Dr. Yu will implant a chip for you later. It will not hurt very much. We are also going to get a vaccine.” 

After Dr. Yu filled out the form, she looked back and smiled when she saw Xin Qin talking to his cat. “I think Sparta is at least one year old, it is hard to get an accurate age. He weighs three and a half kilograms. Although it is a good weight by itself, it will be healiter for him to gain more weight in terms of his body size. The parasite prevention worked. His skin is in good condition and very healthy ears. Remember to clean his ears regularly, but be careful not to be too rough. His temperature is also normal. You can do tripe injections today and come back later for his second round of internal parasite prevention. Then after a period of time, you can consider getting him neutered. Just in time too since his estrus period for this year should have passed.”

Xin Qin quietly pressed down Sparta’s two ears with his fingers. Mochi, who was here enjoying the company, suddenly made strange cat sounds. The Dragon Li cat shook his head before glaring at the big black cat for an unknown reason.

The chip implantation and first round of internal parasite prevention went very smoothly. It was unclear if Sparta knew that struggling was useless or because Xin Qin was beside him, the Dragon Li cat was very well-behaved from beginning to end. He did not struggle or scream. After the injections, he stretched his neck and tried to lick Xin Qin’s fingers, who held Sparta in his arms. He had expected that today’s examination would be very miserable, but instead, the reality right now was Sparta laying motionless on the operation table, with no visible reaction from the injection. Instead, the cat was yawning sleepily. 

Dr. Yu asked them to stay in the clinic’s lobby for another hour to check for any allergic reaction. After a nap, Sparta woke up in high spirits. He also had a fight with Mochi. Maybe he was not used to having a small piece of his paw being shaved, he was continously trying to lick that patch. Worried that the wounds left from the injections would not heal properly, Xin Qin tried had to prevent Sparta from licking. Sparta had no choice but to lower his head and lick Xin Qin’s fingers.  

Dr. Yu teased Xin Qin, “You are being so overprotective. Sparta is a very healthy cat, there is nothing for you to worry about if he eats well. The Dragon Li cat breed has a strong survival ability. All right, there is no adverse reaction. You can leave now.”

Xin Qin bid farewell to Dr. Yu and took Sparta home. In order to increase the nutrition intake for the Dragon Li cat, after dinner, he fed Sparta some freeze-dried snacks, which made the cat meow happily.

After several days of practice and adapting, Sparta could now skillfully operate the tablet with his paws. He soon registered his name as Sparta in the Cat School. On the other hand, his interaction with Miwu also became smoother and smoother, and soon they became familiar with each other’s rhythm. Sparta always boasted, his Miwu is the best human in the world. Miwu is smart and gentle. He knows how to care for the Dragon Li cat, and also knows not to intrude his territory and time alone. 

It is common knowledge that cats are solitary animals and do not like constant company. But sometimes Sparta liked to stay with Miwu for an extended amount of time. Why? Because his human is the best human in the world, of course! He would barge into Miwu’s room and claim his lap while he was playing with the big black box, and then reach closer to his face to make all sorts of strange cat noises. If Miwu was a cat, he would probably be amused by his humour. Unfortunately, Miwu was not a cat. But that did not stop Sparta. After he passed the Cat School exams, he would be able to understand what Miwu said to him. He was very confident in himself. 

The first day of cat preschool had finally arrived as scheduled. That evening, Sparta was so excited that he rubbed around Miwu’s leg again and again, preventing his human from immersing in his own affairs. As a negotiation, his human got out the delicious freeze-dried snack for him. Hmph, I am not being affectionate with you for food. However, I had best not tell Miwu the truth for the time being. Sparta thought as he munched on the freeze-dried snack. 

Once it was bedtime, and the moon hung high in the sky, Miwu had fallen asleep. Sparta opened his eyes, gently licked the human’s nose, then quietly jumped out of bed and tiptoed out of the door.