"Not really."

...omnilol is in gummies, Starclan is in dreams... hm. "Did you, like, eat anything weird, or have an odd dream...?"

"Don't remember."

"Hm. Did you learn it, like picking up new vocabulary only from the beginning, or did it just sort of click for you?"

"Second one."

"Huh. Can any of you guys read?"

"What is read?"

"Interpret visible symbols as meanings."

"Hmmm.  No," says vocabulary kitten.

"YES," says the one who wanted to eat Cam.  "I can read everything."

"Really? What's this say?" He pulls an index card from his pocket and holds it up. It says "SOME CATS ARE PEOPLE".

"I don't want to tell you."

He turns the card around and now it says "READ THIS AND GET A CHICKEN LIVER".

"I still don't want to tell you!"

Card in pocket again.

One of the sleeping cats yawns awake. "What is wrong with this one?" he wonders, looking at Cam critically.

"He TALKS.  It's weird."

"That IS weird." He looks more closely at Cam. "Why do you talk?"

"It's actually very common, we just don't do it by meowing usually! Why do you talk?"

"I went on a very strange catnip trip."

"Really."

"Really."

"Excuse me, uh," what is the correct address here, Ma'am or Miss or some weird Latin thing - "uh, can I take out the colorpoint cat?"

"Yeah, I can get him out for you if you really want," she sighs, rolling down her sleeves.  "And it's Ivy, if you need something to call me by; what's your name?  Or is it just Mr. Some Cats Are People, was that a nametag."

"...ah. I'm Cam. It was not a nametag."

"Yeah, normally they stick on your shirt instead of you having to hold them up for people to look at, silly me.  Or was that cat in particular not a people; I hear only some are."