Responsibility? Not Jerseyboy's forte. Perhaps he could be given responsibility over something miniscule and relatively minor, but as for other people? Yikes. He had, at one point, been responsible for looking after Jacob and now the guy was out in God-knows-where, doing whatever. Not getting killed, hopefully. He'd find out where his little brother went eventually, but for now, he was focusing on him. Not anyone else. This was his time.

Well, that was until a fuming kitten had showed up at the Ascendants border.

It seemed that the tuxedo tom was responsible for yet another child, though this time, she was small. This had been his brother's kid, who had just been born a month or so ago. Jerseyboy had been entrusted with the baby molly (for some reason), and what did he do? He had left her in Snowbound. Those eskimos had taken care of kids before, so why was Melody any different? It was much better them than him; he had little to no experience with young kittens whatsoever. Had she followed him around in his travels, she probably would've gotten hurt within the first fifteen minutes.

"Zio!" No fuckin' way. How did she even manage to find him? God, this was a living nightmare. Children, following him to the ends of the earth to climb all over him and drive him up a wall. (Un)Fortunately, Jersey had just so happened to be in the area when the tiny voice rang out, and he clenched his jaw. Did he go to meet her? Did her not? God, she was his niece, after all. He had to bite the bullet and get it over with. The tuxedo tom emerged, blinking his eyes and looking down at the kitten. "Ey, kid, I thought I told you to stay put." The older male grunted lightly, slightly frowning before asking, "How'd you even get out here, anyways?" He had to give her credit: she was pretty lucky to have survived this far on her own.

Well, this kid certainly had colorful vocabulary. Probably picked it up from her father, or even him, no doubt. Jerseyboy had started learning all of these "terms" when he was young as well, but if he called any of his family members by them?He'd be in for a beating for sure. Melody was just lucky that her parents weren't here, because he wasn't going to deal her any corporal punishment for her prissy mood. Instead, the tuxedo tom scolded, "Ey! Don't go around callin' me that, you hear me?" She could go around calling others that, but him? She wasn't going to get away with it.

She had left Snowbound because she... couldn't deal with strangers? Hell, they were more suited to raise children than he was, that was for sure. She would have had a better chance there, instead of following him around. "That was real stupid of you. Coulda' gotten picked up by a hawk or somethin' out here." Jerseyboy growled, twitching his white-tipped tail and frowning. "Great, now I gotta' find people that can look afta' you here." He muttered. He didn't want to be on constant babysitting duty.

A presence was detected by pointed ears, and he craned his neck to look over his shoulder at the stranger. What was wrong with these people? Couldn't they mind their own business? He huffed, "Whadda' you starin' at?" Jerseyboy knew that this "conversation" with his niece wasn't exactly private, but that didn't give everyone excuse to come over and watch like it was some sort of drama.