Prologue

Cats are the definition of insanity itself, and I would know, I have to look after a cat every single damn day. My name is Dave, and I am a former veterinarian and also a part-time cat-sitter. I have suffered injuries beyond your regular bruise or scratch thanks to cats. 

Before the disCATster known as the CATastrophe or CATpocalypse, I was a new recruit at the local animal hospital, fresh out of college. Even then I recieved scarring injuries. Dogs were fun and fine but all the cats I had to treat were not.

Those... creatures were always very unstable. When they were sleeping, they were the cutest little munchkins that the world has ever seen. When awake they were either passive-aggressive, aggressive, or totally crazy. Especially when you are a veterinarian, cat's "totally crazy" switch was on 90% of the time.

On the other hand my girlfriend Shaliqen was a cat-lover. She adored her cat, Holly way more than your average cat-owner should. In fact, I think she loved that cat a lot more than me.

Holly was a mixed-breed orangy-white cat with stripes, and a long furry tail. Holly's appearance was of a cute angel but this did not match her devilish personality and her pampered persona.

Whenever Shaliqen was at our apartment she would make sure to feed her Holly a better meal than your regular human. Holly had a 7-day meal schedule, each day corresponding to a gourmet dish. Monday was salmon chowder, Tuesday is baked cod, Wedensday is seared sea bass, Thursday is- well you get the point. Cat-modified of course. Holly had better food than average person and especially me, Shaliqen's boyfriend.

When Shaliqen cooked... for me, well she never actually cooked. Most of the time she would serve a fancy meal, of store-bought ramen or freeze-dried year-old pizza. Truly delectable.

I hate that damn cat Holly. She was probably the most arrogant cat the world had to offer. While we were sleeping, that damn cat would jump up on the bed and 99% of the time put her orange ass on my head. I couldn't just roll over and shove her off either. When I did, she would make the most inhumanly screechs possible. Which would then wake up my girlfriend Shaliqen who would then add to Holly's screechs with horrible yelling and pillow throwing. You could think that she would protect that cat with her life.

Sadly once the CATastrophe began after the explosions of one too many nuclear power genarators, Holly gained sentience.

Shit.

                                                                        __~~**(UwO)**~~__ 

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The start of the CATastrophe...

 It was a sunny, beautiful day. The clouds were floating up in the sky, and the sun seemed like it was smiling a bright obnoxious smile. Kids were laughing, and it seemed to be just the right temperature for a nice walk. It would be a great day for me, if I wasn't taking care of my girlfriend's damn cat Holly.

Today was bring your pet to work day, which happened to be one of the many animal related events at work in the animal hospital. 

I did not want to bring Holly, as she was a horrible, hard-to-deal-with cat. But Shaliqen insisted that I should take her. She said that Holly should socialize with some other cats or it would be bad for her mental state. Bad my ass. She does just fine at home and has enough luxuries to keep her entertained for the rest of her nine lives.

I should really break up with Shali actually. She probably only keeps me around to give free check-ups for Holly.

It was 8:00 and I had to arrive at 8:30. I needed to get to work quick, or I would be late. 

Holly was sulking inside of her cage as we headed towards the animal hospital. She threw a tantrum when I made her get in it. Karma. I took a look at the frustrated expression on her face and felt a indescribable sense of ecstacy in my heart. Heh. Finally you got what you deserved. I made a smug expression as I looked at Holly.

Seemingly sensing my pleasure, Holly had a aggrevated expression on her face, and decided to retaliate by yelling and clawing at the bounds of her cage.

"Oh Jeez!" I exclaimed "What the heck, Holly? Calm down we are almost there." I said, pretending to be an actual decent cat owner, as I hurried to my workplace.

I opened the door, as a terribly air-conditioned breeze blew at me. 

"Hey! Good morning!" I said with an over-enthusiastic fake grin on my face. 

...

Nobody even looked at me, except for a few nice guys or a few friends who actually said hello. Ugh, work politics. It would be nice if I could get a raise, but to do that I would either have to do loads of overtime, or curry favor to people in higher positions than me. Both are hard, but in my opinion kissing up to my superiors is a lot more easy.

Great. Almost nobody took part in the "bring your pet to work day" event which, making me stick out like a sore thumb, except for a select few people.

James Matel aka "The Printer" deemed as such by his fellow collegues for doing a days worth of overtime in just two hours and also having a machine-like personality, felt not-so-machine-like when he brought his German Shephard to work and played with it quietly. Another noteworthy PersonXPet was Natalie Quin who did not just bring one pet, and instead brought a whole fishtank.

Together James, Natalie and I, Dave, are the three holy trinities of the animal hospital and guard sick animals from the malevolent sicknesses - not really.

I walked down to my desk, and waited for the sick animals to flood in once we opened at 9:00. I sat down and plopped Holly and her cage on the desk and reluctantly let her free.

I made myself comfortable on my chair and pulled up funny cat videos on my phone. Thanks to my hate for cats, I have developed a hobby of watching cats being stupid.

As if sensing my disrespect for her species, Holly looked at me with a condecending look as I gave her a wry grin just to spite her. She probably thought I was a petty human, but I did not care for her opinion.

Suddenly the ground started shaking hard, I toppled over as a sudden shake shook me off my chair. Holly looked shocked as she jumped up an incredible height, and landed as she hissed with her hair going upwards, and she started expanding like a blown up balloon. 

What the fuck is happening?!

I stared up in shock as Holly started to develop muscles.