"So, uh, about the wait time for Gabbie and Tenor's - "

"Stop."  She swallows.  "I - Nicholas, can we go to your place - "

"Certainly."  He rises to fetch his jacket.

Poor cursed Jackie.

She hugs Ian and scoops up Princess for a forehead kiss on her way out.

"So did the kittens arrive at the shelter already called that, or . . ."

"Do you have any idea how many names we have to come up with."

"Are those names funny in some way - hey kittens do you have names -"

"NO."

"Just that she's, y'know, gabby."

"And they don't really match or interestingly not match.  But mostly I was just trying to lighten the mood, to be honest."

"They claim not to have names. Or, well, the one I assume is called Gabby claims this."

"If they wanna pick something else I'll obviously roll with that."

"The twolegs have been calling you Gabby and him Tenor."

"What do those mean?"

"It means you talk a lot and he, uh... has a medium-low vocal pitch, I guess?"

"Yes I do that.  I can be so loud.  Do you want to hear it?"

"No.  My voice will be different when I gr - "

"I wasn't ASKING YOU."

"Oh, I believe you, I don't think further demonstration will be necessary," Cam tells Gabby. "Do you want a different name?" he asks Tenor.

"Yes."

"Do you have any ideas for what would make for a good name?"

". . . It should mean something interesting and nice, and sound nice too.  In both catspeak and Englatin."

"What things do you think are nice?"

"I don't know.  Maybe I should keep looking at the pictures until I know a lot more words."

"Well, let me know when you're ready to brainstorm." Back to Englatin. "You were saying, Ivy?"

"Uhhhhhh, about . . . ?  - Oh, that it might be smart to just wait till the shifts are switched, especially since the kittens seem to be doing okay here, but depending on how well Ian can act like a normal person trying to adopt a cat that might not be necessary."