26

"You can't get married yet! She is still a baby!" Mrs. Shiji howls.

Tora howls to herself, putting special emphasis on the "Ow!"

"Mrs. Shiji! You're suffocating her!" I scream in despair.

"How can you say that? Maybe you don't understand because you haven't had your baby yet, but she is my baby and I tell you that she will be by my side until she is 90 years old” she says stubbornly.

"No, Mrs. Shiji! You're suffocating Tora" I say, quickly pulling Tora out of the lady's arms and pulling her onto my lap.

"Oh!" Mrs. Shiji says with genuine surprise "Very sorry! I did not realize..."

I shake my head and look sympathetically at the half-strangled cat in my arms. I could swear I just heard you breathe a sigh of relief. Either that or Tora is just trying to get the air back into her lungs.

"But Madame Shiji, that is exactly the problem. You are so caught up in your own emotions that you don't realize what you are doing with the people