Kitty 13

I am participating in NANOWRIMO this year. I will attempt to post my daily ramblings in the hopes that eventually it will become a book which will entertain you as well as myself…

This is a work of fiction. No real people, places or events were used. Copyright ã 2011 Plot Roach.

Kitty Part 13

By Plot Roach

She tried all of her usual tactics to find food, even though they had moved on to places she did not recognize. How far have we traveled? She asked herself. I don’t recognize any of the usual spots where our kind would normally gather. And I definitely don’t recognize the smell of the animals here.

When her nose brought her to a stop in front of an abandoned human building. “I definitely smell something here,” she told Max. “It’s familiar, but I don’t know why.”

“Is it food?” He asked, salivating as he waited for her answer.

“It smells of humans…and something else,” She said, trying to find the memory that eluded her like a flea in thick fur.

She followed the smells to the back of the building where garbage was strewn about the pavement. There were no garbage can around, no shredded plastic bags either. This isn’t like what the humans did in the other places we visited, she told herself. Something is wrong here.

“Food!” One of the dogs cried out, running for the heaps of trash.

“Wait!” Kitty called out. “There’s something wrong,” she said. I just don’t know what it is, she thought. And though her belly argued with her mind, she knew to trust her own instincts. They have, after all kept me alive so far, she thought.

Max also joined into the fray, pushing aside the smaller dogs to get at the food. The smell of the cast off garbage was too much for them, though she had hoped that some of the dogs would listen to her warning.

“You are missing out on the good stuff,” said Moon. “It will all be gone and you’ll be left with an empty belly yet again. Well, empty except for pups,” she sniggered, plunging her muzzle back into the pile of stale human food

Kitty sat to the side, even as the pack devoured the last of it. The human scent on the food was stale, as was the natural smell of the food itself. There was another smell, stronger than the other two, which hung over the stuff in a pungent cloud. Chemicals, Kitty told herself. It was like the cleanser that the humans used in the restaurant that sometimes clung to their clothes. She had been sick from it a few times when humans intentionally treated the food at the dumpster with it in order to discourage her from scavenging for scraps there.

What was it that the cat had told her about the humans and the dead bodies that had been feasted upon by stray animals? And then it hit her in a flash.

“Stop eating!” she barked. “The humans have poisoned it!”

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Max said, still chewing on a piece of dried hamburger patty.

“Then why have no other animals come and eaten it?” Kitty asked. “Raccoons, cats ad opossums all have had access to this place, and yet the food was left for us to find it. And why do you think that they left it alone?”

That was when one of the smaller dogs began to whine with pain. He staggered and fell, frothing at the mouth.

"The foaming disease!” One of the other dogs called out.

“No,” Kitty said. “It’s poison.” And soon the other dogs began to feel the effects of the chemicals that the humans had put on the food. Many curled up on the spot while others raced to check on their fallen comrades.

“You did this on purpose,” Max said. “You lead us here to kill us. You’re in league with the humans somehow.”

And for the second time in her life, Kitty was accused of betraying her pack to the tyranny of the humans.

“No,” she said. “I would never do that.”

But Max advanced upon her, though she could see that he was suffering from the first effects of the poisoned meat. “Attack her!” he called to his pack. But most of them were busy either in their death throes or trying to vomit up what they could in order to survive. “I’ll kill you myself,” He said. She turned and ran.

Even poisoned he still was fast. He chased her around the building and out into the street.

Kitty, with her attention focused on the murderous alpha behind her did not see the car thundering toward her until it was too late.

She was struck by the metal beast, pain lancing up one leg. Even then she tried to run from Max, though her leg would no longer support her.

A human female burst out from the car, and looked down at Kitty.

“It’s a dog, Craig.” she told the other human in the car.

“Is it dead?” he asked.

“No, but I don’t know how hurt it is.”

Kitty, overwhelmed with pain and fear felt consciousness slip from her. But not before Max growled a warning from a nearby bush. “If I ever find you again on the streets I will kill you.”

Kitty felt herself lifted from the street and onto something that felt soft and cushioned her like great piles of bagged garbage. There was the smell of another animal, a dog. He whined when he sniffed her and her heart raced. Had the pack followed her? Were they going to finish her off? But this dog smelled different from the gamey scent of the pack. He smelled of humans, soap and good health. When he sniffed at her muzzle she could smell the kibble on his breath.

Pet, she thought, he’s nothing but a pet. Then the darkness fell upon her like a thick wool blanket.
When she woke she found herself held in another cage. Not again she thought as she nosed the wire mesh of the door, the side walls, top and floor were of a hard stuff that was like stone, but moved if she pushed against them hard enough. She tried pawing at a corner to dig her way out when the stranger approached her.

“Oh, you’re awake,” he barked. “She’s awake! She’s awake!” he bellowed.

“Stop, or you’ll bring the humans here,” Kitty said.

“That was kind of the point,” he said. “How else are they going to let you out and give you food?”

“Let me out?” she asked. “You mean on purpose?”

“Sure, did you think that you were going to stay in there forever?”

“Until they decided to kill me, yes.”

“You’re a silly dog. Why would the humans want to kill you?”

“Look, pet, I hate to tell you the bad news, but they eat us,” Kitty whispered through the bars of the pet carrier. “They catch us in the wild with cages, kind of like this,” she said nosing the wire mesh of the door. “Then they send us to a place where lots of animals are kept, they throw us in a chamber where the Dark One comes out of a pipe and steal our souls. Then the humans send us to a place where our bodies are put into cans so that the humans can eat us at their leisure.”

“And you learned this how?” the dog asked.

“I was in the place where they kill the dogs, and a cat told me the rest.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Kitty said.

“Did it ever occur to you that the cat lied?” the dog asked.

“What would be the point of her lying to me?”

“Well, maybe she was misguided then,” the dog suggested. “Has anyone else said this to you?”

“No, but…”

“Here now, let’s put this argument to rest and ask an expert.” The dog turned to a cat and asked: “Hey Lucy, did you know that humans eat cats and dogs?”

“They most certainly do not!” the calico said. “What’s this talk of pet eating? Other than ‘hot dogs’ and ‘cat-chup’, which are not made from what you think that they are, the humans usually eat other, lower, animals. Creatures considered “pets” are not usually on that list.”

“What other creatures are there out there?” kitty asked.

“Well, there’s pigs -that’s where ‘pork’ comes from- goats, cow -that’s called beef- chicken, tuna -my
personal favorite- and then…”

The cat continued her ramblings of the different foods that the humans had provided to her over her lifetime. And quite a few more that she heard about from other cats and was eager to try. Kitty could not believe that there were so many animals that walked the same city as herself, much less ones that she had never seen.

“She can go on like this forever.” the dog told Kitty.