The kennels were dark when Carlos came in to begin his shift. They were always dark when he came in. The first thing he did was turn on the lights. The old florescent bulbs flickered and, one by one, held their steady greenish glow. They were terrible lights, really, but there wasn’t much he could do about them. He was just an employee. He had no idea what it would cost to replace all the old light fixtures with something less offensive to the eyes.

With the lights turned on, the animals inside their kennels began to stir. They knew that when the lights turned on it meant Carlos had arrived. A smattering of yips and barks, along with a few other noises greeted him.

“Good morning everyone!” He called out to them all. “I hope you all slept well.”

As he spoke he slipped on the knee-high galoshes, fitted a hose to the spigot, and began walking through the rows of kennels. In one hand he held the other end of the hose, a spray nozzle affixed to it, and in the other hand he pulled the affectionately named Poo Bucket, a rubber bin with wheels on the bottom and a short spade tucked inside. As he walked past each kennel he checked to make sure they were clean.

The kennels all had a drain in the middle of their floors. After scooping out any solid messes, he gave them each a spray down. He moved the animals out of their kennel and into a temporary one while he sprayed the walls and floors. Most of the dogs would have been happy to just stay in their kennel and play in the water but the repeated, daily spraying would be too much for the animals. The cats, of course, were more than happy to stay dry. There were a few other kinds of animals as well. One of the kennels housed a rather large and moody iguana and a few others held parrots.

Carlos only ever handled the dogs and cats. The reptiles and birds were handled by Sam who wouldn’t be in until the afternoon shift. Carlos would have been happy to take on the challenge of the other animals but had to admit he was a novice when it came to their care.

“How’re you Titan?” Carlos asked as he neared the final kennel.

Titan was a cat who, for numerous reasons, had yet to find a family who would keep him for more than a weekend. Titan was old, for one thing, and most people wanted kittens. He was also bald in places from here he had rubbed or licked or scratched himself raw while under the neglectful care of his previous owner. He didn’t do those things anymore but his fur never fully grew back. He was also partly deaf and blind which made him jumpy and prone to scratching and biting.

Carlos tapped on the plexiglass wall of Titan’s kennel before entering. He’d found that these little signals helped Titan realize Carlos was coming and made it less likely Titan would attack when Carlos came in to check on him. This morning, Titan was lying on the top of his carpeted cat tower. His tail twitched when Carlos entered but didn’t give any other sign that he was bothered by Carlos this particular morning.

“You’re looking good today,” Carlos told Titan while he sifted through the litter box.

Titan twitched his tail again.

“Would you like to be petted today?”

Titan meowed quietly. It was a grumpy sort of meow, but not a no.

Carlos’s coworkers thought he was crazy to think he could actually communicate with the animals but he’d been around the kennels long enough that he knew when an animal was listening and responding to him. Then it was only a matter of paying attention to them to figure out what their responses meant.

Finished with the litter box, Carlos moved slowly over to Titan and gently held out his hand for inspection. Titan had a hard time seeing anything more than a few inches from him and this allowed him the time to adjust to Carlos being so near.

He sniffed Carlos’ hand, opened his mouth a crack, and then pressed his face into the offered hand. Carlos rubbed, more than scratched, since Titan’s skin was sensitive from all the years of licking and scratching. Titan rarely purred, but he seemed to enjoy the attention nonetheless. He pressed his head into Carlos’ hand even harder and so Carlos rubbed that area a bit more before moving to Titan’s shoulders and back.

After a few minutes, Titan let out a low grumble and Carlos withdrew his hand. Titan stretched, arching his back and kneading with his front claws. He climbed unsteadily down from his perch and made his way over to his food and water dish.

“I’ll be right back with your food,” Carlos told Titan and then left the kennel.

Titan gave no sign that he had heard but he remained where he was. With the Poo Bucket returned to its corner of the room, Carlos began measuring out and delivering the morning meals. Most of the dogs bounded around so excitedly during this part of the morning routine that it made it quite difficult to actually give them their food. To be fair, the cats were only easier to feed because they were so much smaller on average. Only Titan regularly left Carlos alone while he delivered the food.

“Here you go, Titan,” Carlos announced when he arrived with Titan’s breakfast. “Looks like chicken and gravy this morning.”

He plopped the food into the dish and stepped back. Titan sniffed and made his way to the food more by smell than by sight. At first he nibbled a few bites and then, satisfied that it met with his approval, began to snarf it down. Carlos sat down on the floor and spoke to Titan while the cat ate. He didn’t talk about anything in particular, just rambled on about work, about recent events, or anything else that came to mind. There wasn’t much to do while the animals ate and he liked to give them some time to digest before starting the baths for the animals whose turn it was to get a scrub down.

Titan grumbled here and there while Carlos spoke, not unlike a person would who was listening and mumbling to show they were paying attention. As he finished eating, Titan made sure to lick any extra bits of gravy from his face. Then, to Carlos’ great surprise, Titan walked over to him, climbed up into his lap, and curled up.

Carlos could hardly believe it. Titan had never done anything like this. What was more, Titan began to purr.

“Would you like me to pet you?” Carlos asked cautiously.

Titan stopped purring just long enough to let out a short growl before resuming his purring.

“That’s a no then,” Carlos noted. “Well, you’re welcome to sit here as long as you like.”

He pulled out his walkie-talkie and spoke quietly into it so as not to disturb Titan.

“I’ve got a cat lap,” he said, “so baths may be postponed a bit later than usual.”

After a moment’s delay his walkie-talkie crackled and the voice of Suzette, his supervisor, followed.

“You have a cat lap?” she asked. “Which one?”

“Titan,” Carlos told her.

There was another pause, longer this time, and Carlos began to wonder if she had heard him, or if he’d forgotten to press the talk button. A minute later, however, Suzette came into view outside the kennel. She looked shocked.

“How?” she mostly mouthed to avoid disturbing Titan, and then added, “Is he purring?”

Carlos nodded and then mouthed back, “He just climbed up on my lap.”

Suzette gave him a thumbs up and a wink, her form of high praise.

“I’ll handle the baths,” she whispered and then walked back out of sight.

That was one thing Carlos really loved about his job. Everyone seemed to really love the animals and recognized how, sometimes, a case of cat lap was a good enough reason not to do certain other tasks. In Titan’s case, any sort of behavioral improvement was a huge success.

After a while, Titan fell quiet and his breathing became slow and steady. He had fallen asleep. On the one hand, Carlos was ecstatic that Titan had been comfortable enough to come and fall asleep on his lap. On the other hand, the floor was hard and Carlos did have other things he would need to get done that day.

As if on cue, Suzette came back into view. She held up the work camera they used to take photos of the various animals and gestured with it as though asking Carlos if it was okay for her to take his picture with Titan.

He nodded and then smiled for the camera. Suzette took the picture and then stood there a moment longer, smiling down at the sleeping cat.

“What do I do?” Carlos asked her silently. “He’s asleep now.”

Suzette cocked her head to the side and then shrugged.

“Stay there?” she mouthed.

“Is that okay?”

“Sure! If Titan’s happy, I’m happy.”

Carlos returned her thumbs up and settled carefully into a more comfortable position and Suzette left him once again.

As the minutes passed, Carlos found himself absentmindedly stroking Titan. What fur he did have was incredibly soft and Carlos had to wonder how anyone could have so terribly mistreated such a beautiful cat. He didn’t know the full story, but he did know the previous owner had had Titan for close to twelve years. Titan was coming up on his one-year anniversary of living in the kennel. Few animals made it to that point. They were almost always adopted out before then.

Titan let out a long, slow meow. It sounded so different than any of the other sounds Carlos had ever heard him make. It was hard to tell exactly, but it sounded like contentment, or possibly satisfaction.

After the meow, Titan gave a brief, shuddering stretch, and then was still. Carlos kept stroking him but soon he realized Titan wasn’t breathing anymore.

“Titan?” Carlos asked.

No response.

“Hey, Titan, come on,” Carlos felt his throat tightening. “You’re not…

But what he was going to say he wasn’t sure. Titan was old. Carlos had been around for other old cats who passed away, but had never had one die right in his lap.

“Suzette,” Carlos croaked out into the walkie-talkie, “Suzette come here please.”

A moment later, Suzette came into view. Her expression was worried yet unsurprised.

“How are you doing?” she asked, out loud this time as though she knew she wouldn’t be disturbing Titan.

Carlos motioned silently to Titan in his lap but couldn’t form the words. He even began to feel tears welling up in his eyes.

Suzette opened the door to the kennel and sat herself down beside Carlos.

“Is he gone?” she asked.

“Yes,” Carlos managed to say, his shoulders beginning to twitch as he fought back the urge to simply bawl.

Suzette put her arm around Carlos and tucked him under her chin as though he were a child.

“Titan certainly had a tough life,” Suzette said, “but I’ve been watching him over this past year and, you know what? I think he was happy while you were with him. No one else could pet him. No one else could get him to eat. You were special to him.”

Carlos kept stroking Titan even though he knew it wouldn’t make any difference.

“I knew he didn’t have long,” Suzette admitted, “and when I saw him all curled up in your lap I figured he was on his way out. That’s why I wanted to get that picture of you two together. Natsumi’s having it printed right now so it should be ready before you go home today.”

Carlos’ tears fell steadily onto Suzette’s lap but she didn’t seem to mind, though she did pull a square of paper towel from her pocket and offered it to him. He took it and whipped his eyes and nose. For a long while they just sat there until Carlos had finished crying. He felt somewhat foolish for being so affected by Titan’s passing, but at the same time he wished more people had known him for the sweet cat he could be. The little smirks he sometimes gave, pulling back just the corners of his floppy cat lips. The different growls and meows he used to communicate with Carlos. The small, everyday things that he did to let Carlos know that he recognized the effort Carlos put in to help him feel loved, safe, and cared for.

“Take your time,” Suzette told him. “If you need a couple days off that’s fine too.”

“No,” Carlos said as his breathing finally began to even out, “I like being here. I wouldn’t want to just sit at home doing nothing.”

Suzette patted his shoulder and gave him one more gentle squeeze.

“Well, I’m going to go get those doggies washed,” she said and began to get back up to her feet, “I’m still fine with you doing whatever you need to do, today especially. If you want to keep cleaning kennels or give the animals their baths, that’s fine. If you want to go work the front desk, that’s fine too.”

Carlos nodded and Suzette left. It took a few minutes before he was ready to get moving again, but eventually he got up and set Titan down gently onto his small bed. He looked so peaceful, as though he were any other sleeping cat.

“I’m gonna miss you, Titan,” Carlos said and his throat threatened to tighten back up as his emotions welled back up. “You deserved so much more, but…but I’m glad you were happy…at the end.”

He cried quietly a little while longer, standing there in the small kennel, looking down on the small creature he’d come to care so much about.