AN:

I've seen those cute little comics with Cat Rick from lonelylonelyspace on tumblr and was instantly inspired to write this fanfiction. So, you can all go and blame her for this :)

Btw, you should also check out her other stuff, she's amazing!

Again, none of the characters are mine (not even Cat Rick)…

Morty and Cat Rick

Morty could still vividly remember the time when Rick had entered into his life.

He had been just on his way back home from school when he had seen the old cat for the first time.

The stray had been crossing the street in no hurry and then just sat down in the middle of the lane not noticing or just not caring that a car was heading its way.

Now Morty wasn't the most heroic person, but he couldn't just stand by and watch an innocent animal getting run over so he recklessly ran on the street grabbed the ball of fluff and managed to get back on the sidewalk before anyone could get hurt.

The driver only honked his car horn at him for the action and the feline repaid his heroism with scratching and a well-placed bite in one of the hands that held it.

This forced Morty to let go of it and it landed gracefully on its four feet.

Since the cat didn't ran away but rather sat down, back facing him and licking at its right front paw, Morty got the chance to take a better look at it.

It was very obvious that the cat was a stray for its long, bluish-grey fur was dirty and knotted, grime clotting the long, frizzly hairs together.

The poor thing even had a bald spot on the back of its head and Morty figured that it most likely had lost the fur in a battle even though there was no wound to see anymore and even up to this day, it still hadn't grown back.

Morty could see that despite the thick scrubby fur, the cat's body was gaunt and as the stray finished licking its paw and turned its head around, looking at him with a worn expression, he just couldn't resist.

Being the good soul that he was, Morty decided to help the cat and bring it home with him.

Now the hard part with this endeavor was convincing his parents to keep the old tomcat.

"Morty, you already have a dog." His father said while he pointed to Snuffles. "They probably won't even get along. You can't keep both."

This argument quickly proved to be invalid though as the dog with the fluffy, pure white fur didn't seem to mind the newest addition to the household and the feline didn't even acknowledge Snuffles' existence.

So, after lots of begging, Morty was finally allowed to keep the cat.

Since his mom said that the tomcat somehow reminded her a little bit of her father it was decided that the cat's name would be Rick even though Morty never met his grandfather that had been up and gone when Beth was still just a child.

The relationship with Rick was complicated though.

Of course, Morty knew that cats had very obstinate personalities, but Rick put that to an extreme.

The old cat, which looked like it had a constant frown on its face, would demand Morty's attention at the most unfortunate times. Like in the middle of the night.

Morty had to learn soon that it was futile trying to ignore Rick when he sat in front of the door of his room at 3 am, meowing loudly and scratching at the door.

When these actions would be ignored, he would just jump and latch onto the door handle and let himself into the room. After that, he would jump on Morty's bed and meow loudly in his face to rouse him from his, by that point, pretended sleep.

The boy's first reactions would be to mumble at Rick sleepily that it was too late for whatever he wanted and he would try to roll up under his blanket to get away from the annoying fur ball, but Rick would punish him for that by kneading the blanket persistently and deep enough that his sharp claws would be digging right into Morty's skin.

So, it was usually easier to just give in to his demands instead.

Most of the time he just wanted to play, feeling bored in the middle of the night after sleeping almost through the entire day.

Other times, Rick just did it to get some attention and Morty learned that these were the only times that the cat would allow the boy – or anyone, for that matter – to snuggle with him.

If anyone would try to cuddle or even just stroke Rick's fur, they would be on the receiving end of a lot of hissing and scratching. The tomcat also didn't shy away from biting into hands or uncovered ankles.

Come to think of it, Morty noticed that he was the only one that Rick would ever huddle up to.

On very few occasion the feline permitted Summer or his Mom to give him one light pet in passing.

However, with his dad it was an entirely different story.

For some unknown reason Rick really seemed to hate Jerry even though the man had never done anything to the cat.

The old feline never bothered to hide his dislike for the family patriarch and would randomly attack him by jumping on his shoulder or back when he found the opportunity.

Jerry was starting to reciprocate these feelings and would try to avoid the grumpy tomcat as much as possible.

Therefore, Jerry's study was also a room that was supposed to be off limits to Rick.

Emphasis on "supposed" because the cat would easily find a way in there – he was clever enough to open doors, after all – and would spent his time with joyfully sharpening his claws on Jerry's recliner. Or he would just piss on the carpet.

Usually he did both of these things.

The trouble that he made for Morty's dad weren't the only inconveniences that he caused.

Though, Morty could forgive Rick's bad habit of throwing up on his carpet because that's something that cats just do and the random times that the cat would disregard that he had a litterbox and just take a shit or a piss elsewhere were also things that he could overlook.

Even the "morning surprises", which came in the form of a dead rat that Rick must have caught outside in the night lying on his pillow exactly in his line of view when he would open his eyes first thing or being greeted by a cat butt when Rick thought that sitting on Morty's face was a good idea (smothering the boy in his sleep as he did that) were endurable to a certain extend.

Morty was willing to put up with a lot of what Rick did, but what he really couldn't stand was when he would bath Rick and the tomcat would come back even dirtier than before the next day.

Though, while it was true that cats were generally very clean animals and would usually invest a lot of time in caring for their fur, Rick must have been a rare exception to that.

He didn't really bother much with grooming. No, he wouldn't even bother licking his butthole clean after pooping, which was why Morty was left with the duty to always wipe it afterwards.

It might have probably been because the cat was so old. That's why Morty tried to not mind the added effort to do the care that Rick neglected.

But the point was that it was effort – a lot of effort.

Morty couldn't really find out what breed Rick was and he assumed that he must be a mix that had probably some Persian in it because he had really long fur. And taking care of that was not very easy.

Aside from the fact that Morty needed to brush it every day to avoid it being hopelessly tangled and knotted up, having to wash Rick was an even more tedious task.

Especially, since it was something that Rick was obviously not very happy about.

Nonetheless, with the fur clotted together from dirt and grime, taking a bath was the only solution.

So, Morty would go with Rick into the bathroom – making sure to properly lock the door so that the cat wouldn't escape and run completely drenched through the entire house again – and place him in the bathtub.

He would use a bucket to wet Rick's fur and keep in mind to retain a good hold on the fur ball, who would try to scratch and bite into his hand, which was wrapped in a few layers of old towels and rugs. Live and learn, as they say.

Even though Rick was being fed regularly, the old-timer didn't eat with a great appetite and so his slim body would be easily revealed once his fur was matted down like this.

Then Morty would struggle to get some of the pet shampoo worked properly into the wet fur while still keeping Rick from escaping. Each time that they did this, it felt like it was harder to do because despite Rick's lanky body he was pretty strong.

After successfully soaping up every dirty area aside from Rick's face – wouldn't want to accidentally get that stuff in his eyes or something – Morty would again use the bucket to rinse the fur and watched the brown water flush down the drain.

Though while at this stage Rick would still look grumpier than normally – how that was even possible, Morty did not know – the worst part was over.

Now the fur just needed to be dried and brushed. And while Rick still looked like he wanted to make an escape, he was more willing to hold still for this part. Yet Morty already learned the hard way that he still shouldn't let his guard down.

However, the boy couldn't help but always chuckle at the sight of the wet and grumpy feline because Rick just looked too hilarious with his long fur drooping and that look on his face.

Morty would then continue by wrapping a towel around Rick and softly rub him down to get most of the wetness out.

Then he would continue with a hairdryer, mindful of the heat that the device would produce so as to not accidentally burn the old cat's skin.

After the drying was over, Rick's fur would look even more fluffed up than it usually would be and again it was a sight that would make Morty break out in laughter.

The boy wasn't sure if Rick always gave him this scolding look, which felt like a sarcastic remark because of the way that his fur was puffing out in all directions or because Morty was guffawing about him.

It was probably the fur though because no matter how intelligent this cat was he couldn't really get angry over the fact that Morty was making fun of him, right?

Not that he could tell that his current looks were the reason for Morty's laughter, right?

Getting over the funny – or embarrassing, depending from who's point of view you saw it – situation, Morty would grab the cat brush and proceed to comb through the thick, fluffy fur, careful of the all the knots and not stopping before all of them were worked out.

The grooming was certainly the longest part in the entire process, but after seeing how clean and presentable Rick looked afterwards – almost like a normal, cute cat if you overlooked that bald spot on the back of his head – Morty would always feel like all the effort had been worth it.

Well, he would think like that at least for the rest of the day.

Think it before it would become dark outside and Rick would venture through the cat flap that they had installed and go adventuring the entire night.

Think it up until he would wake up in the next morning and see Rick completely covered in dirt. Leaves and even a few small twigs would be sticking out of his fur.

And Morty would look outside and briefly wonder how the cat could have gotten that dirty since it hadn't rained.

Where in the world could he have been – or with who of his cat buddies must he have been with - to become this extremely covered in mud and grime?

He might have probably hung out with that crazy tomcat, Squanchy (named like that by the kids from down the street), who roamed their neighborhood again.

And Morty would want to cry, but instead he would just sigh and prepared everything in the bathroom to repeat the same process from the day before again…

Looking at all the trouble that Rick caused, all the effort that taking care of him would create and seeing how little he ever gave back in return, one might wonder why Morty would even bother keeping this grumpy old cat.

But if you were to ask him, he could give you the answer, as simple as it was:

He did it because despite everything that the feline was putting Morty and his family through, he loved Rick.