Kitty 15

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 15

By Plot Roach

“Why do you have such a hard time believing that humans want to help you?” the dog asked.

“Why would they want to?” she asked. “What’s in it for them?” Kitty started to groom a paw, if only so that she would not have to look the dog in the eye as she did so.

“Well… There is companionship for one. Humans and dogs working together make the world a better place.”

“Tell that to MINE,” Kitty muttered.

“And he is?” the dog asked.

“Was,” Kitty said. “He’s dead now. He used to be a guard dog for his human masters.”

“What happened?”

“When the went away, they left him chained up to a tree in their front yard to die,” Kitty said, ceasing her grooming to look the dog in the eyes.

“I’m sorry, it always hurts when a friend dies,” he said. It was his turn to look away. He found that her eyes had an incredible intenseness about them, as if the soul of a much larger creature waited within her skin. But waiting for what he did not know.

“He wasn’t my friend,” she said, breaking eye contact to scan the room for threats. The humans were still on the couch and the cats remained where they slept.

“Then… what was he?” the dog asked. "I would stop by his yard to drink water out of the sprinklers and to occasionally scavenge garbage from the bins in front of his house.”

“Oh.”

“Oh, what?” kitty asked.

“I didn’t know that you were that kind of dog,” he admitted, and embarrassed demeanor about him.

“What kind of dog?”

“A stray,” he said.

“What?”

“The kind of dog that gets abandoned by its owners,” he explained.

“I know what a stray is,“ she said. “I’ll have you know that I’ve been on my own my entire life. I never ‘belonged’ to anyone. And if I had it my way, I would be back there now instead of trapped up in a human house with a ‘pet.’”

“But with a human you get fed, you have a home and you have love,” the dog explained. “What do you have out there that can compare to life like this?”

“I was on my own and it was lonely sometimes,” she admitted. “But I’ve learned that I can only really trust myself.”

“Were you ever part of a stray pack?”

“I was, just before the humans hit me with their car and brought me here.”

“And you didn’t like them, either, did you?” he asked, a slight grin on his muzzle. He sensed that he was about to win the argument that they had been having.

“Parts of it were okay, I guess,” she said, grooming one paw. “I liked waking in the night to hear their breathing, to know that I wasn’t alone. I liked it when we huddled together for warmth. And there were dogs that formed partnerships, that looked out for one another and groomed each other…”

“But you never had that, never found someone to trust that much?” he asked.

“No.” Kitty said. “I was always the lowest of the pack.”

“It must have been filled with great predators, if you were considered the weakest.”

“Not exactly,” she admitted. “I was the one who found most of the food.”

“And you were still the lowest ranking dog there?” he asked.

“Seems silly, doesn’t it?” Kitty asked.

“Why did you stay with them when you could do so much on your own?”

“My world had grown more dangerous when the humans disappeared. I was living on my own once, before I was caught in a cage and taken to a place called the pound. Dogs there were taken into a chamber at the end of a hall where…” She was unable to go on.

“I’ve heard of such places, you don’t need to tell me about that. Just what happened to you afterward. How did you come to be where the humans found you?”

“After the humans had left the pound, it was days before anyone returned. Two humans finally returned. One wanted to set us free and the other one wanted to lure us into the chamber to kill us.”

“And then?”

“The human who wanted to set us free tricked the other man. When he was out of the room, the man started opening the cages and turning us loose. But the other man got angry and started shooting at us. Some of us died, while others were able to run away. A lot of the dogs were angry at me because I knew how to open the cages, but could not reach the lever myself to do it.”

“That’s nothing to get angry about.” the dog said. “Even if you knew how to do it, you weren’t physically able. Did they expect you to grow wings and fly them out of the pound? The humans taught me how to open doors, but I’m only allowed to open specific ones. And even then, only on command.”

“You can open the doors?”

“Yes. Like I said, my humans taught me.”

“Why would they do that?”

“The human named Craig is blind. Other humans taught me how to help him get around, bring things to him, warn him of danger…”

“So you can open the door to this room and get us outside?” Kitty asked.

“Yes.”

“Then do it now!” Kitty said. “We can be free of them in an instant and feel the fresh air in our lungs. We can be our own masters and hunt for ourselves. Do it now! Before they can stop us.” She leaped to her feet, tail wagging wildly. Freedom, her heart sang. Freedom at last!

“No.”

“What? Why?” she asked.

“Because it’s wrong?”

“How can freedom be wrong?” she asked, once again sinking to the floor.

“Because there would be no one to take care of Craig,” he said. “Because that wasn’t what I was trained to do. Because dogs need masters.”

“I was a wild dog,” she said. “I had no master, and it didn’t feel wrong to me.”

“I’m trying very hard not to judge you,” he said. “Because maybe you didn’t know any better, because you never had a real home. But I love Craig and he loves me. He feeds me and loves me and I help to take care of him. We may be a pack of human and dog, but it’s the only pack that I know.”

“But-”

“No,” the dog said. “Look at what life on the streets did to you. You had no one to love you. When you did finally find a pack, they used you, tormented you and damn near killed you -or did you think that I didn’t see the dog that was chasing you before you were hit by the car?”

“I…”

“Like I said, I’m not judging you. Others around you have had hardships as well. I was born in a shelter. It’s where they take animals until they can give them homes. But theses places don’t kill animals. They just hold onto them until there are enough humans to find them homes. I was there with my mother and siblings until Maria came to take me to her home. She taught me all sorts of tricks and then she gave me to Craig. I’ll never see my mother or brothers and sisters ever again. I miss Maria’s family a lot, their home was my first real home before coming here. I especially like the other dogs that they were training when they trained me. But Craig is my pack now, he’s my responsibility. And it does not matter what I want, I have to put the needs of my human first.”

“And what happens when he leaves you behind like the humans did to MINE? Or what if he tosses you out on the street?”

“He won’t do that,” the dog said. “He needs me too much. And even if he didn’t, he loves me too much to do that to me.”

“Hey, Shakes,” the human male called to the dog. “Get me a drink.”

The dog turned from Kitty and walked into the kitchen. He pulled at a rope that was attached to the handle of the refrigerator door and tugged on it to open it. He gently took a can of soda into his mouth and walked away, letting the refrigerator door close by itself, the lid having been weighted to do so. He then took the can to his human who rubbed the dog’s ears and then kissed him on the head. “Thanks, Shakes.” the human said before returning to his conversation with the human woman.

The dog returned to Kitty’s side and lay down beside her. Kitty flinched at the contact, but did not growl. “Your name is Shakes?” she asked.

“It’s short for Shakespeare.” he said. The humans give unusual names to the service dogs they train so that when other people call for their ‘pet’ dogs, we don’t end up getting confused.”

“Like what?”

“Well, when I was being trained there was a Mozart, Cezanne and a Monet.” the dog said. “Most normal pet names can also be human names like ‘Lucy’.”

The cat raised her head and blinked at hem. She had been startled from her nap by the mention of her name.

“Is it time to eat?” she asked.

“No, Lucy.” Shakes said. “I’m sorry to disturb you. I was just telling the new dog about your name.” Shakes turned and faced Kitty. “Bu the way,” he said. “What is your name? You do have one, don’t you?”

“Kitty.” she said.

“Oh, that’s not going to get confusing or anything,” the cat said sarcastically before returning to her spot on the table where she curled into a ball and was asleep almost instantly.

“Now how in the world did you get a name like Kitty?” Shakes asked.

“There was a woman who lived in their building that I made a den under. She fed the cats on a daily basis by tossing out dry kibble and calling-”

“Here kitty, kitty.”

“How did you know?” she asked.

“Craig does the same thing.”

“Well, It was the first human word that I recognized, so that’s what I named myself.”

“I guess it could have been worse,” he said.

“Like how?”

“Our mailman swears a lot at the mailbox because the lid doesn’t open easily in cold weather. You could have picked one of those very unflattering words instead.”

The woman bid farewell to Craig and stopped by the table to say goodbye to shakes. “I see you made a new friend,” she said when she spied Kitty beside him. She reached out a hand and tried to pet Kitty, but the dog shied away. The woman pulled her hand back and Kitty hunched down as far as she could to the floor, expecting a low to land that never did.

“What’s wrong?” Shakes asked beside her.

“Isn’t she going to hit me?” Kitty asked.

“Why?”

“It’s what humans do.”

“Not all humans,” he said.

The woman only smiled and shook her head. “You’ll be okay here, girl. We won’t hurt you.”

“How is she doing?” Craig asked.

“She doesn’t seem to be in any pain,” the woman said. “But then again, she’s not up and walking, so I can’t really be sure.”

“I’ll keep an ear out for any whimpering.” Craig said. “It’s not like I’ll be able to tell if she limps.”

“I’ll be back early tomorrow and we’ll see how she does then -are you sure that you don’t want me to take her to my home instead?”

“Naw, she’s here.” Craig said. “She seems to have made a friend in Shakes, so we’ll let her stay. If she went back into the carrier it might spook her too much, and she’d just have to readjust to your dogs. I think she’s better off here.”

“Okay then, I’m off.” And with those parting words, the woman closed the door behind her.

“That was Maria, the woman who trained me.” Shakes said.

But the words fell on deaf ears as Kitty watched the door open and close around the woman known as Maria. Her one chance at freedom lay beyond that door and she had to find a way to get the dog beside her to open it.