Kitty 23

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 23

By Plot Roach

“I hate to admit this,” Kitty said. “But it feels good to get out of the apartment and run around in the fresh air.” The wind ruffled her coat and kitty could already tell that winter would soon be on its way. It’s a good thing that Shakes and I found the supermarket this morning, she said to herself. It will keep them all fed throughout the winter what with all the humans gone.

“I thought that I was the only one who felt like that,” the calico said. “Though I sometimes feel guilty about yearning for my freedom when the other two cats know of no other way of life. I wouldn’t wish homelessness on them, but it feels good to be my own cat again.”

“How do you think that they will take to life without Craig?” Kitty asked.

“I think that they are in shock now and that it will probably hit them when we leave the apartment and we can no longer smell him,” she said. “I think that’s why Shakes won’t leave Craig’s body, because it still smells like him.”

Kitty turned the corner of the building and faced the front of the supermarket. “Here is your new home, my lady.” she said, bowing to the cat as if she were a queen.

“The electricity is still running here.”

“Yeah, but we don’t know for how long,” Kitty said. ‘With the humans gone, it may shut off at any moment.”

“Why is it still running here when it is off at our home?!” The cat demanded. “If it had been working last night, then Craig would have been able to call for help. He would still be alive. How can it be this way? Why one block and not another?!” The cat yowled, her hair spiked along the edge of her back and she looked for all the world as if she were to attack an unseen foe.

“I don’t know,” Kitty said. “The things that humans do still baffle me. But think on this, Lucy, even if Craig managed to call for help, there would still have to be someone there to come and get him, someone to take him down all the stairs that we walked down this morning. We’re healthy animals, but Craig was not. Do you really think that he could have made it, even with help? And if they did manage to get him to a hospital, and there were people there to help and try and heal him, what if he had died anyway? You and your pack would never have known that he had passed. And he would have been surrounded by strangers when the Dark One came to claim him, not by his beloved pack.”

“I know,” the calico cat said in a soft tone, grooming her hair back into place along her spine. “But I don’t remember seeing him there, do you?"

“Who?” Kitty asked.

“The Dark One.”

“There were not black dogs,” Kitty said.

“Not a dog, silly.” Lucy said. “Do you really think that a dog comes to collect cats when they die?”

“I hadn’t really though about it“ Kitty said. “I just know that you never see the Dark One until it is your time to leave.”

“I saw him once,” Lucy said. “But he was a dark Manx with fur the color of ash."

“Did you die?”

“Almost,” the calico said, licking a paw to keep from looking into Kitty’s eyes least she laugh at her. “It was when I had eaten a dead mouse that I found near a trash dumpster. I was so hungry that I ate it without wondering why it was dead.”

“And?” Kitty asked.

“It had eaten poison and I had gotten very sick from it,” She said. “The Dark one visited me that night and told me that there was more for me to do here… But you probably think I’m crazy for talking about it. Both Blue and Prue do, that’s for sure.”

“They don’t know everything,” Kitty said. “I met a dog in the pound who saw the same thing. He said that he had a destiny to fulfill. So I trust you when you say that you saw the Dark One as a cat.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Kitty said. “Maybe you’re here to help take care of the others, what with Craig dead.”

“What will you do when we get the others out of the apartment?” the calico cat asked. “Will you stay with us?”

“I can’t, Lucy. There is something I was meant to do. And I can’t do it if I stay with you,” Kitty explained. “I don’t know what it is, exactly. But there is an urge in me to keep going until I find it. It’s like an itch in my bones and when I stay still too long in one place, it burns unbelievably hard.”

“Well, I’ll be sorry to see you go,” the calico said. “As I’m sure the others will as well.”

“I’m no so sure that Shakes will miss me, “ Kitty said. “But I think that this is the best place for you and your pack.” Kitty looked up at the bright colors of the neon sign. And sighed, hoping that it would be enough to keep them going until they could learn to fend for themselves or the humans came back to take care of them.

“I knew that you were one of us,” Lucy said.

“Well, of course I‘m one of you,” Kitty said. “Maria dragged me to the apartment after all.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Lucy said.

“What did you mean then?”

“That you are one of the god touched.”

“The what?” Kitty asked.

“The All Mother spoke to you, too. Didn’t she?” the calico cat asked.

“Yes, just like the Dark One did.”

“They both gave you gifts,” Lucy said.

“Gifts?” Kitty asked.

“Well you didn’t think that they would put you back out into the wild world without an edge, do you?” the calico cat laughed. “I knew that you were different when you mentioned seeing colors. Not one dog that I’ve met can see colors. And all the cats that I’ve spoken with have a similar problem, though they could see a few of the colors that humans can. But you can see things like a human can -and you can think like them can as well. I’ve seen you solve things in the apartment in seconds where it took Shakespeare months to learn -and that was when he was trained by a human. You are different from the rest of your kind, Kitty. Embrace your gifts and use them well on the path that has been set before you. They were given to you for a reason. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can climb that tree over there and get onto the roof of the building for a closer look.”

As Lucy went on about her task, she left Kitty thinking over what she had said.

Am I really that special? She asked herself. But while she tried to deny it, memories of the pound and living among the pack came back to prove her special skills to her. She knew how to open the cages, even if her paw could not manipulate the lock. And she had known how to get into the dumpster, a feat she had never even thought was possible, much less tried back in her old days as a common street dog. But what was it the All Mother and the Dark One had wanted her to do? Their words had evaporated from her mind like raindrops on hot pavement.

“Hey!” Lucy said from a rooftop overhang. I found a way in and I think I can get the side door open to let you in as well.”

“Just be careful,” Kitty called back to the calico cat. “We don’t know if anything else is already living there.”
A few minutes later, very uncomfortable minutes that felt like an eternity to Kitty because she did not know if her friend was in danger, the cat opened a side emergency exit. It had a lever handle like the doors to the apartment complex. Lucy had managed to knock it open with a shopping cart filled with dog food.
“How did you-?” Kitty began to ask.

“Did you think that you were the only one that the gods gave gifts to?” Lucy asked, purring playfully.
Kitty made sure that the door closed behind them, not wanting any intruders to find this paradise that she wanted to protect for her friends. “I don’t smell any rotting food, so I don’t think this place lost electricity at all.” Kitty said. “But one thing is for sure, it will go off eventually. If it’s something that I’ve learned while living amongst the humans, it’s that when humans leave an area, they take all the good stuff with them.”

“So what will we do?” Lucy asked.

“Eat all of the meat that you can while it’s still good. And get rid of the stuff when it starts to rot. Have Shakes take it out into the parking lot. You’ll want to set up a den in a corner… Or better yet, this place might have a separate room…” she said and loped off in the direction of one of the store’s walls. Along the back edge she found a staircase.

“Not more stairs,” the cat complained.

“No,” Kitty said. “This is a good thing.” She took to the stairs and found a room at the top. She clawed at the handle at the top and managed to pull it open a bit. She dashed back down the stairs and grabbed a can of food, then pulled the door open again. “Wedge it open,” she told the cat, who did as Kitty had told her. From there she was able to nudge the door open with the bulk of her body. Yes! She thought to herself. There was another of those tiny legs at the base that once pulled down would keep the door in place.

“That’s where I came in,” Lucy said, looking up at a skylight that had been left open. “But I made my way out of the window there instead of using the door like you did.” The window in question held a full view of the store’s floor below them. It will make a great lookout spot, Kitty thought.

“Can you close the roof’s window if you need to?” Kitty asked, doubting that she or Shakes could ever climb that high and keep their balance in order to close it.

“Probably, if I studied the lever attached to it a bit longer. Why?” the calico cat asked.

“Because this is going to be you new home.”

“It doesn’t look very comfortable,” Lucy said

‘It doesn’t have to be, for a human. they live elsewhere, remember?”

“But what about for us?” the cat asked “I can’t sleep on a stack of papers with a spike through it and I doubt that they others will look kindly upon me if I suggest it for their bed.”

“We’ll fix it. You’ll see. Should we bring the others here now, or fix it up ourselves?” Kitty asked.

“I think that we ought to do it ourselves. I don’t think that Shakes is ready to leave the apartment yet and the other two are notorious lazy bodies.”

“What do you want to start with first?” Kitty asked, excited to help the cat make this place into a home for her friends.

“How about we get all this human stuff out of the place?” Lucy asked. She started pushing things off of the desk and onto the floor where Kitty pawed them down the stairs and out of the way. By the time they were done, there was a sloppy pile of debris at the side of the stairs. They had kept the desk and the chair (at Lucy’s request), but managed to deposit the computer, keyboard and monitor into a broken heap which Kitty tugged at for nearly twenty minutes before freeing the electrical cords form the wall and dumping it onto the pile of human stuff below.

Then kitty dashed throughout the store looking for items that the calico cat had listed off of the top of her head.

First came the fleece lined overstuffed beds, including a larger style for the two dogs when they decided to bed down on the floor. And array of bowls ringed the floor. Kitty picked up an assortment of cat and dog toys to toss about the room. As kitty removed a rawhide bone from its packaging she stopped to laugh.

“What is it?” Lucy asked.

“All my life I’ve been fighting to find enough food to fill my belly,” Kitty said. “And now I have found enough to feed a pack for several seasons. These silly humans even made toys for their dogs to play with when they got bored -bored! No animal in the wild searching for its own food ever got bored.”

“I know how you feel,” the cat said. “I never knew true boredom as when I wad trapped up in the apartment with nothing to chase or stalk.”

“How are you going to get Prue and Blue to leave the safety of the apartment and follow you out into the street?” Kitty asked.

“With this,” Lucy said, tossing a catnip stuffed mouse at Kitty’s feet. Kitty sniffed at it, but other than a strong herbal scent could not understand Lucy’s fascination with it.

“I just don’t get it Lucy. What’s so great about that toy?”

“You’d feel differently if it were filled with beef gravy.”

“Yeah,” Kitty said. “But it’s not.”

“The herb inside makes us cats feel funny, like excited and relaxed at the same time,” she said. “Almost as if we were kittens again.”

“So what does it do to kittens?” Kitty asked.

“It doesn’t do anything,” Lucy said. “You have to be an adult cat to feel its effects.”

“Yet another thing that humans made that makes no sense. What should we do now?” Kitty asked, after they had filled the room to Lucy’s satisfaction.

“We’ll still need to drag up some food and water for an emergency, if we can’t get down the steps for some reason,“ the calico cat said. “But that will have to wait until Shakes can get here to help carry up the bags.”
Lucy looked around her at all of the trappings of a civilized life among the humans. “I think we should stop and eat something. We’ve worked hard and I think we need a treat.”

“Shouldn’t we bring the others here first?” Kitty asked.

“No, they have food enough to last them at the apartment. Besides, we did all the work and I think we deserve to eat first at the kill, so to speak.”

Kitty walked up and down the aisles, sniffing at packages and tasting bits and pieces of things.
“Kitty?” Lucy asked “Why don’t we get some of the food from the refrigerators before they go bad?”
Kitty nosed some of the packages in the open faced refrigerated sections, snatching down hotdogs and bologna. In the meantime, Lucy helped herself to a tube of liverwurst. They chewed daintily through the plastic packaging before gorging on the treasure that lay within.

“I’ve never eaten so well in my entire life,” Lucy said, licking buts of processed meat off of her whiskers.

“I’ve never had my food this fresh, either,” Kitty said. “And I didn’t have to beg fur it or test it for poisons or chemicals before eating it.

When they were thirsty, Kitty gnawed through a plastic bottle of water, like she had back at the apartment for Craig, and dumped it into a waiting bowl. When they had both rested enough they got back to their feet and left the building, letting the emergency exit slam closed and locked behind them, since Lucy was certain that she could repeat her trick with the filled shopping cat once again.

They traveled back to the apartment, their good mood spoiled by the thoughts of entering the apartment where Craig’s body lay and where the animals who had stayed there were unlikely to follow them to this new and wonderful place.

The walk up the stairs was just as grueling to Kitty as it had been the day before, but she kept up her pace next to the calico cat. “Do you think that they are ready to leave yet?” Kitty asked Lucy.

“They’ll have to be,” she said. “It’s not like someone is going to come and feed us. We’ve got to look out for ourselves now. Well, ourselves and each other.” Lucy smiled at her around the catnip mouse she had brought to tempt Prue and Blue into following her. “I could not have done this without you.”

“You can thank Shakes,” Kitty said. “He was the one who knew where the supermarket was.”