Hey, what's up? It's me, Noah. I am here to tell another story about a fear of mine. This is one is more of me encountering a fear. This may seem funny and stupid, but I had a fear of cats. I had one and it attacked me so suddenly which is how I got the fear. I always try to keep it a secret but basically all my friends know I have a fear of cats. I get made fun of because of it by my best friend, Andrew. It's not as if he's trying to be an asshole. We just like to pick on each other.

It was a nice day even though we got quarantined again and I decided to take a walk outside of my house. My dad was out and my sister was doing homework in her room. I take a deep breath and it was fresh. Suddenly, I heard a strange sound. It was a meowing sound. I would've gone back into the house and just go about my day but the meow was at a high pitch. I go investigate the sounds and it was coming from my dad's garage. I look around and a screech scares the hell out of me. I turn around and see something that fell from the paneling of the roof of the garage. It smacked down and got itself killed. I look closer trying to keep my distance from it and I realized it was a kitten. "Oh shit," I said under my breath.

I grab a ladder nearby and climb up. I look and see two other kittens shaking and meowing. One was black and the other was striped like a tiger but grey. I was pretty scared. And what makes it worse is I also have a fear of heights. I almost got down immediately. I took a deep breath and tried to grab one of the kittens. Its claws were almost sharp. They looked like bear claws only ten times tinier yet still very intimidating. I carefully hold one of them and put it in my shirt. I grab the other one and it meowed scaring me. I gained some strength and tried again. I had one hand holding my shirt and another holding the ladder as I climbed down the ladder. After that, I hesitantly hold the kittens with both of my hands. I couldn't believe it. My mind was kinda blown. I was literally holding two kittens that are constantly meowing. My hands started to shake. Even though I hate cats, I don't want to hurt them. I take them inside and put them on the couch. I immediately went into the kitchen and washed my hands. As I did, I called for my sister, Natasha. She comes down after a few seconds and says, "What's up, Noah?"

"Tash, we might have a situation," I answered as I dried my hands. "I was taking a walk and... I... Found k-kittens."

"Wait. Kittens? You didn't leave them there, did you?!"

"They're on the couch." I pointed on the couch and the tiger fell. "Oh shit."

Natasha immediately grabbed the one that fell. It meowed like crazy. Natasha was somehow able to calm it down. "They must be starving," she said. "You call Dad and I'll feed them. First I'm gonna check what gender they are."

I call Dad and he was coincidentally on his way home. As we were talking I heard Natasha yelp, "Yep, that's a boy."

I look and immediately looked away. I hate looking at the belly area of animals. It's gross.

Once I hung up, Natasha was getting milk warmed up. She looks at me and asks, "Noah, can you help me?"

"With... The k-kittens?" I stuttered.

My heart started to go faster. "Yeah," Natasha said. "I need you to help me feed them. They probably won't be able to sit well with this milk but it'll work."

"There's no way I'm doing that."

"You want to encounter your fear, right?"

I didn't respond. I definitely wanted to but I get too scared if one gets toward me. I take a deep breath and say, "What do I do?"

"All you gotta do is put the eyedropper into his mouth and let him have all he wants," Natasha explains.

"Which one is the boy?"

"The tiger one."

Don't think about it, I thought. You'll be fine. It's just a baby.

I grab the tiger cat as gently as I could. I grab an eyedropper and put it in some milk. I do as Natasha said which is gently put the eyedropper in its mouth. He struggled a few times causing me to freak out a little bit. Natasha comes behind me and says, gently, "It's okay. He's just fiesty. He's not gonna bite you."

"He's scratching me though."

"He can't help that. He's just trying to get on you. You're gonna be okay."

"I-if you s-say so."

I take another deep breath and try again. He eventually grabs the tip with his mouth. He made a sucking noise making me cringe. I almost squirmed even. "That's it," Natasha said.

"Y-yeah... I'm d-doing it... Sort of."

"It's progress."

"Shut up."

Dad eventually comes home and we discuss what happened. We've officially adopted them. The tiger is named Rick from my choice. The black one is Fudge named by Natasha. I'm still trying to get myself comfortable with them but honestly, I'm glad I found them. I don't think I'd try to get over my fear if it wasn't for them.