"Y, yeah. Everything's fine." Rita looks down warily at the cat. Wait... something's off. Is that...? -- No, she needs to act normal right now. "It just startled me, that's all." If all he saw was her jumping at nothing, that should be a plausible enough lie.

Still holding the tail, Rita sits back down in her chair, tucking it underneath herself. It's awkward, but it's better than letting anything weird happen again. That pesky cat, however, casually strolls under the chair and starts batting at the feathers dangling by her legs. In the interest of making it stop, Rita picks it up and holds it over her lap. It gives a half-hearted meow in protest, but now she's able to get a better look at that collar... which she does, leaning over its neck and staring intently. So much for acting normal.