Summary: Evie told Zac that she prefers dogs over cats and would never turn him into a cat because of that. What happens when a stray cat adopts Evie? Will she realize that she doesn't mind cats and may like them as much as she likes dogs.

Word Count: 3049

Evie loved Zac. That was nothing new. She'd loved him since she was six, first as her best friend and now as her husband. While the two were completely in love, there were still times where they each needed time to themselves to do the things that only one of them enjoyed. Evie had never really been a fan of camping which was why Zac had suggested to Cam and David a 'guys weekend' to go camping. After the approval from the mermaid counsel and ensuring that it wasn't a full moon, the three were allowed to camp on Mako.

For the weekend she had to herself, Evie neglected making any plans. She didn't have to go to work and she didn't have to go out—unless she decided she wanted to go out. The plans Evie had were to relax whether that meant staying at home or go out.

Cam, David, and Zac took Friday afternoon off work so they could make sure they had everything for the night set up and ready before the sun set. At home, Evie began to enjoy the evening she had to herself by sitting outside and reading on the patio of the house she and Zac rented.

After a while of reading, Evie decided to lay back and close her eyes for a few minutes. While laying with her eyes closed, Evie heard a couple meows from nearby. At first, she didn't think anything of it—a neighbor probably had windows open and the cat's meow carried. However, the meowing seemed to grow closer a couple minutes later when Evie heard it again. Sitting up, Evie opened her eyes to investigate. Evie found a kitten sitting beside her chair looking up at her. It gave another long meow when she looked at it.

"Hi there, kitty," Evie spoke, holding her hand out towards the kitten. It cautiously stepped forward to smell Evie's hand. After a few sniffs, the kitten decided Evie wasn't a threat and began rubbing its face against her hand. "Is it okay if I pick you up?" Evie asked, reaching out to pick the kitten up. It didn't protest as Evie sat it on her chair to better pet it. The kitten continued to rub its head on Evie's hand and even began to purr.

For several minutes, Evie just pet the kitten. It was still young and had a kitten look in its face. However, other than seeming to be a little underweight, it appeared to be healthy. Although her knowledge of cats was fairly limited, Evie knew some from being around Poseidon and having taken care of Carly's cat.

"Do you want something to eat, kitty?" Evie asked after a couple minutes. "I don't have any cat food in the house, but I can see if I have anything for you to eat." Evie carefully got up from her chair so she wouldn't disturb the kitten who had decided to lay down on the chair. As she headed inside, she pulled her phone out to look up what human food cats could have.

In a quick search online, Evie found that cats could have cooked meat, canned fish, and a variety of other things. Since she and Zac had tuna in the house, Evie settled on getting that ready for the kitten and got a small bowl of water as well. When Evie went back outside, the kitten lifted its head curiously as it watched Evie place the tuna on the chair and the water on the ground beside the chair. If gave the air a few sniffs before getting up to eat.

"I hope you enjoy that. I'm going to go inside for the night. If you're still here in the morning, we'll see if you're someone's lost cat at the vet, okay?" The kitten looked up and meowed at Evie as though it understood her. Evie smiled as she picked her book up and headed inside to get her own dinner ready.

Later that night as she got ready for bed, Evie looked outside to see where the kitten was and found that it was still curled up on the lounge chair. Evie smiled before heading back towards her and Zac's room.

CHCHCH

As she got up the following morning, Evie grabbed her robe and headed outside to see if the kitten was still around the house or if it had moved on. After taking a quick walk around the house, Evie was about to head inside to get herself some breakfast when she heard a small meow. Evie looked around and found the kitten making its way over to her.

"Hello again, kitty," Evie spoke. She bent down to let the kitten smell her hand. After a couple seconds, it began rubbing its face against Evie's hand, begging to be pet. "Why don't I go inside and find you something to eat," she offered.

Evie opened another can of tuna and brought it out to the kitten. While she got a fruit salad ready for her own breakfast, she called the vet Carly took her cat to so she could see about taking the kitten in. They would be able to fit Evie and the kitten in later than morning. Although the vet was able to fit Evie in yet that morning, she was glad it wasn't until late morning since she still needed a cat carrier.

Despite the fact that Evie was sure the kitten wouldn't leave since it was still around from the evening before, she wanted to make sure it wouldn't leave or wander too far away from the house before the appointment. Once the kitten finished eating and was relaxing on the lounge chair again, Evie brought it inside to the sun room where there were plenty of comfortable places to lay. Evie then took out her phone to call Carly. While the two talked, Evie explained that she had a kitten to take to the vet and Carly who was more than willing to loan Evie a cat carrier to take the kitten to the vet in exchange for the full story when she dropped off the cat carrier before work.

"Evie, I'm here!" Carly called into the house, entering without knocking as she had begun doing while the two were in high school.

"I'm in the living room," Evie called back.

"Where's the kitten?" Carly asked when she got to the living room.

"I wanted to make sure I could find it when I needed to leave for the vet so I brought it into the sun room," Evie explained. She also gave Carly the rest of the story about finding the kitten before they headed to the sun room.

"It's adorable," Carly spoke, walking over to the kitten. She held her hand out to let the kitten smell her and began petting it as it rubbed its face on her hand. "It can't be much more than a few months old. I hope the vet's able to find its home. Maybe there's missing posters up around."

"Yeah, I hope we can find its home too," Evie agreed.

"Do you think you'll be good to take it to the vet?"

"Yeah, I should be all set," Evie confirmed. "Thanks for the offer."

"Of course. And let me know if you need anything else."

"I will. When do you need the carrier back? I could probably get it back to you some time this week."

"Don't worry about it," Carly spoke. "I have another cat carrier at home if I need to take Tiger to the vet."

Evie smiled. "You're the best," she said, sharing a hug with Carly.

"I know," Carly teased. "But seriously, if you need anything else later, let me know."

"I will," Evie agreed, walking Carly to the door. A little while later and after some bribery, Evie was able to get the kitten into the cat carrier and buckled into her car.

CHCHCH

"Good morning," a technician working at the front desk greeted Evie when she arrived at the vet. "Who do we have here?" she asked, motioning towards the carrier Evie held.

"This is actually a stray I found. I wanted to have it checked to see if it's healthy or if it had a chip and is someone's lost kitten."

"All right. What's your name?"

"Evie Blakely."

"Okay, right," she said, typing a few things into the computer. "So the kitten showed up at your house and you're not sure if it's a stray or a lost kitten?" (getting more information)

"Correct," Evie confirmed.

The woman typed a few more things on her computer to make notes. She asked Evie a few more questions to get Evie's name into their system before looking back up. "First we can see if the kitten has been chipped. If it was, then we can contact its owners so you don't have to worry about anything else and they can be reunited with their kitten."

Evie nodded and the technician went to the back to retrieve the chip reader. "Will the kitten try to get away if you held it?"

"I don't think so," Evie said. She opened the carrier and carefully held the kitten in her arms.

"No chip," the technician reported. "Let's head back to a room so you don't need to try and get the kitten back in the carrier right now," she said, leading Evie to a room. "The kitten is beautiful. I can't imagine it can't have a home, unless its mom was a stray," she trailed off. "Anyway, the vet should be in here soon."

"Thank you." For the few minutes she had to wait for the vet, Evie let the kitten walk around the room and smell the other animals that had been in there.

"Good morning, Evie," the vet spoke a few minutes later as she entered the room. "I'm Dr. Miller," she said, holding her hand out to Evie. "This is Max who's going to be helping with the kitten's exam. So this is a stray kitten without a chip," she spoke, reading off some notes on a clipboard. As Evie had picked the kitten and put it on the exam table, Dr. Miller began looking over the kitten. "I think she must be about 5 months old. Since she didn't have a microchip, she must be a stray because cats and dogs over the age of 3 months need to be microchipped before they find their forever home." Dr. Miller continued her examination of the kitten including getting her weight. "She's a little underweight, but I think you were already aware of that."

"I was."

"So she needs to build up to a healthy weight before she could find her forever home. You could surrender her to a shelter. The fact that she's over three months and hasn't been chipped makes it very unlikely she is anyone's."

"Could I take care of her?" Evie asked. "Help her get to a healthy weight at the very least. I'm not sure I want to surrender her if she doesn't have a home. I'm not sure we can adopt her yet. My husband's camping for the weekend so I need to see what he says and check with our landlord, but I think I want to keep her—at least for now."

"All right," Dr. Miller agreed. "We want to wait a little while until she's put on a bit more weight to spay her, but I can take her to the back and we can get her her first round of vaccinations and get her chipped if that's all right."

"That would be great."

Dr. Miller nodded. She picked the kitten up and brought her to the back as Evie sat down to wait. Evie knew that her landlord allowed animals. He had previously had tenants with pets and that was one reason Zac and Evie decided to rent the house they did because they thought that they might adopt a dog in the future.

A little while later, Dr. Miller and Max returned with the kitten. "Have you thought of a name for her?" Dr. Miller asked as she gave the kitten back to Evie.

"I don't know," Evie began. "Maybe Honey since she's got some honey colors."

"I was just wondering so we could put a name down for her records. You don't have to be decided now so if you want to use Honey as a placeholder name for now, we could change it later if you do keep her."

"I like Honey," Evie decided after a few moments. "It fits her."

"All right," Dr. Miller smiled. "Then we're all set if you want to stop at the front desk on your way out."

Evie nodded her agreement and headed to the front desk after Max helped her get Honey into the cat carrier. A few minutes later, Evie was on her way home with Honey. She stopped at a pet store on her way home to get some food, toys, litter, litter box, and a bed for Honey—even if she didn't use the bed, it would be available to her.

"This is your home for now, Honey. We'll just have to convince Zac to let you stay when he gets home," Evie spoke, opening the carrier for Honey who began to walk around and explore while Evie set the things she had bought up. Although Zac didn't know about the cat yet, Evie called her landlord to explain the situation. As Evie had hoped, he was okay with there being a cat in the house and was okay with it if Zac and Evie kept the cat.

Later than night, Evie called Carly to tell her what she decided to do with the kitten and told her she had decided to name the kitten Honey. The following day, Evie would stop by the café for a little while to talk more with Carly.

That night, as Evie sat on the couch reading her book, Honey jumped up and laid down right next to her. Evie couldn't help but smile. She and Poseidon had never gotten along very well, but Honey had liked Evie from the start—chosen her it seemed. Maybe the reason she always thought she liked dogs better was because she had been around dogs more than cats.

As she got ready for bed that night, Honey followed her into the bedroom and lay down at the foot of the bed. "Goodnight, Honey," Evie spoke as she turned the lights off. Honey gave a slight meow in reply and settled herself comfortably at the end of the bed.

CHCHCH

On Sunday morning, Evie woke to find Honey curled up on Zac's vacant side of the bed. "Morning, kitten," Evie spoke, holding her hand out towards Honey who gave a slight meow before getting up to rub her face on Evie's hand. She couldn't help but smile. Honey had chosen her. How could she have not fallen in love with her?

After getting up, Evie first got Honey some breakfast before getting her own breakfast and then getting ready to go to the café for a little while. Before leaving, Evie closed off a couple rooms to keep Honey from getting into too much trouble while she was gone. Evie planned to be out for less than an hour just to stop by the café and see Carly again, hopefully Honey would behave.

"How are you going to tell Zac about Honey when he gets home tonight?" Carly asked almost immediately after Evie entered the café. "And convince him to let her stay?" she quickly added.

Evie shook her head. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "I really hope he likes her and she likes him. It's only been a couple days, but I'm not sure I can part with her."

"What did your landlord say about her?"

"There's some other things we'll need to do if we decide to keep her, but thankfully he was fine with it. Do you think you could get me the usual?"

"Sure thing."

Since it was early on Sunday morning, things at the café were slow so Carly was able to sit and talk with Evie for a little while before Evie headed home.

When Evie arrived home, she found Honey laying by a sunny window. After a quick search of the house, she found everything in order. For having been a stray kitten, Honey was doing well as an indoor cat. That afternoon, Evie worked on taking care of a few things around the house while trying to figure out how she was going to convince Zac to keep Honey. By that evening, she still had no ideas on what to say when Zac got home and saw Honey.

CHCHCH

"Evie, I'm home," Zac exclaimed that evening as he entered the house. He set his things down and made his way to the living room where he expected Evie to be. "There's a cat," he noted, pointing to Honey who was curled up on the couch beside Evie.

"This is Honey," Evie explained.

Zac furrowed his brow but made his way over to the couch and held his hand out for Honey to smell. She immediately began rubbing her face on his hand. "Where'd she come from?"

"She showed up Friday evening. I took her to the vet so they could see if she had a home. She's a stray and kind of ours for now."

"I thought you preferred dogs."

Evie shrugged. "I guess cats aren't so bad."

"She's a sweetheart. Are we going to keep her?"

"It's kind of up to you. I already checked with our landlord. There are some other things we'd have to do for having a pet, but other than that," Evie trailed off.

A smile spread across Zac's face. "I always thought our first pet together would be a dog, but if Honey is the first pet we have together, I'd be happy with that. She's purring so loudly," he commented as he scratched behind her ears. "I hope you're ready to go on a long, long life journey with us," Zac spoke as he continued to pet Honey, deciding that taking care of his stuff from camping could wait until later.

A/N: Happy 4 year anniversary to this series of one shots. I'm sorry it's taken a year for another update. I was finishing my degree this past year and completing an internship this summer all of which needed to be prioritized over writing fanfics. While I'm now done with school, I'm still not sure how much time I'll have to update between trying to find a job and actually working.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. It was inspired by Evie's line about preferring dogs to cats but also because the situation of a cat showing up at the house is something that's happened to my family multiple times. Sometimes you adopt a pet and sometimes they adopt you.

I'd love to know what you thought. I appreciate constructive criticism that can help me become a better writer. As I've said before, I'm open to requests. I make no promises about being able to write any of them, but if you have an idea, feel free to leave it in a review or PM me.

Thanks for reading,

-CrazyHayniac