I was walking through town after escaping the house to get away from the depression permeating the walls when I saw him. I had taken to walking the streets when it was raining to calm myself. I had my hood up and my head down, but I still managed to see him. It was his familiar brown eyes that caught my attention. I froze on the sidewalk and looked in the window of the pet store. I had just been thinking of a way to cheer Alice up when he made his presence known to me. I stood, looking at him, watching him play with his littermates while I tried to make up my mind. Alice was probably the most depressed of everyone at home, she missed her confident and best friend. It was Ali's happiness that helped me decide. I sighed to myself, opened the door to the pet shop, and walked in. I strode over to the kittens' home made of plexi-glass and stood, looking at him. His long fur was a dark brown, he had cloud-shaped spots, and an unusually long tail. When he smelled me standing there, he looked up at me with those eerily familiar eyes. His siblings ignored us as he pranced up to me and started batting at my hand with his tiny paw.
"Looks like he likes you, sir," I heard from behind me.
I had been so wrapped up in the little brown kitten that I didn't hear, feel, or smell the shop keep walk up behind me.
"I rather like him too, Mr…?" I said, turning around to face the purveyor of the store.
"Oh, Shawn Davis. My wife and I own the store," he replied, stretching his arm out to shake my hand.
"Jasper Hale, pleasure to make your acquaintance," I answered, shaking his hand.
"You too, young man."
I smiled internally at his comment. He didn't know that I was probably older than both his great-grandparents.
"I'm trying to find something to cheer my fiancé up. We moved recently from a small town in Washington, and she misses her best friend. Unfortunately, neither of us have ever owned a pet," I told him, gesturing to the kitten as I spoke.
He nodded, smiling at me. In answer to my admission, he motioned for me to follow him. We stopped in a row of pet-care books.
"You should find any information you need here. We have numerous books on kitten and adult cat care, should you need them. We also have books on home veterinary care, as well as one or two training books, if you need help teaching your kitten how to use the litterbox or scratching post," he told me, pointing out the cat section as he spoke.
I nodded my thanks and began flipping through the books. Who knew cats took so much work? I found the ones with useful information, which turned out to be more than I would have liked, and stacked them up in my arms. I then moved to the other side of the shop, which held the food, toys, and such. I sighed to myself again and went to get a cart for everything so it wouldn't look suspicious. Since I had to go through all this, it was a guarantee that Alice knew what I was doing, so she hopefully knew I was getting everything for the little guy too. I started piling everything into the shopping cart before getting the owner of the store to help me with the kitten.
"Find everything you need?" he asked me, leading me back to the kittens' home.
"Yes sir, I was just wanting to let you know that I was ready to get the little guy," I replied, following him to the plexi-glass house.
We arrived at the little cage and he gestured for me to pick out the one I want. I instantly selected the kitten that reminded me of Bella. He even lacked the instinctive fear of vampires, like Bella does.
"Oh, her?" Mr. Davis said, surprised by my choice.
"Her? I thought it was a male?" I replied.
"No, no, no. It's a female. She's… different, though. I've had a difficult time finding her a home, even offered her to someone else that was interested for free. But people always change their minds. She's sweet, most of the time. I just don't know why she's so temperamental. You're the only person she's ever showed interest in for more than five minutes. Then she starts hissing," he told me, nervous that he just lost the sale.
I just shrugged in reply and cuddled her close to me. I'd been holding her for all of five minutes, and I was already attached. She leaned into me and started purring in my ear. I barely kept from purring back.
He sighed before saying, "Follow me. I'll get you rung up."
After paying over two hundred dollars for the kitten and his, I mean her, stuff, I put her in the cardboard crate and walked outside. I walked down the street to the car I had left parked at an intersection before getting out to walk. We made it halfway home before she started crying. I thought back to some of the things I read about car rides and before realizing that none of it would help me. I decided to think about some of the things vampires do when they need cheered up, after making up my mind, I started purring at her. She almost immediately calmed down. I heard her moving around in her crate and glanced over to see her curling up in a ball to sleep. I smiled at her before facing the road again. I pulled up to the house and turned off the car. Noticing the silence on the so-called abandoned property, I warily got out of the car and grabbed the kitten's crate. I concentrated on sensing the emotions around me as I got the rest of her things out of the back seat. I was confused when I could only feel anticipation and excitement coming from the house. Guessing that Alice was the only one home, I made my way up the pathway and across the porch. Opening up the door, I had only a moment to register the happiness radiating from all around me before I felt Alice slam into me in a hug.
"Oh, Jazzy, thank you so much! I can't believe you would do that for me! I love you so much Jazz!" she exclaimed, almost knocking me on my back.
I quickly regained my balance before telling her, "Ali, I would do anything to make you happy. But don't you want to see the little girl?"
She squealed in excitement before jumping away and grabbing the cardboard crate from me. I let her take it and put everything down before she opened the box. The second the top was opened, the kitten hopped out and started purring at everyone. She immediately went to Alice and crawled on her lap. In her happiness, Ali started purring back at her. I then noticed that everyone else was there, save Edward. The joy radiating from everyone proved to me that I made the right choice in bringing home the little kitten. I just stood, watching Alice play with the kitten. After several minutes of playing a game of catch the mouse, Esme gestured for me to follow her into the kitchen.
"Jasper, thank you so much for doing this. It's really helped everyone out," she told me, enveloping me in a hug.
"It really isn't anything, Esme. I meant what I told Alice, I'd do anything to make her happy," I replied, hugging her back.
"What'cha gonna name it?" I heard Emmett ask from the sitting room.
"I'm gonna name her Izzy," Alice replied.
"Why?" Carlisle questioned as Esme and I walked back into the room.
"She looks like Bella," came the quiet answer.
Everyone was silent for a moment, taking the time to digest what Alice said. I had hoped she would notice the similarities.
"Alice is right," Carlisle said after the silence stretched into minutes, "she even lacks the fear of vampires like Bella…"
"Why Izzy, though?" Emmett questioned.
"For Isabella. If I call her Bell or something similar, then it could get confusing if we ever get to see Bella again," Alice told him.
"Oh," was his eloquent answer.
After several suddenly tense moments, Ali and I decided to get Izzy's things set up. After making her identity tag, Emmett put the cat's collar around her neck. We set her bed up in mine and Alice's room but put her litter box in the attached bathroom. Her food and water dishes went in the kitchen, her food became the only things in the cabinets. We never had human company, so we didn't see a need to keep up the pretense of being "normal". Izzy's toys were scattered throughout the house and her ten-foot tall five-foot wide cat tower was set up in the enormous sitting room on top of a well cushioned base in case the kitten was to fall. The cat care books that I bought were placed on the coffee table in the television room for anyone to read in case they had to cat sit. In fact, Carlisle snatched up the home veterinary care handbook the second he saw it. Two days later, we set up the outdoor cat play center that I ordered and put the special fencing up. After getting her play area outside set up and ensured that it would be safe, we let her out to sniff around.
Alice and I just stood and watched her play with one of the dangling toys on her play center. Joy and contentment had been radiating from everyone since I brought the kitten home, which made me certain that I made the right decision for everyone, including Izzy.