A Tail of Two Kitties

Shadow:

It's a beautiful spring morning. The sun is just starting to come over the edge of the horizon. The birds are singing. The air is crisp with just the hint of the scent of flowers blooming somewhere in a window box. There are not very many cars today, so it must be one of those weekends, whatever those are. A day like this makes you glad to be alive, provided you're not a street cat. Unfortunately for me and my sister, that's just what we are. Mom went into heat a couple of weeks ago, and we haven't seen her since. So, now it's just the two of us trying to survive in the back alleys of some city or the next. I'm sure the humans have a name for it, but they've never bothered to tell it to us.

"Have you found anything yet?" I ask Sis.

"No. You?" she replies.

"Would I be asking you if I had?"

"Good point."

"It looks like these bins have been picked over pretty well. Let's try the next alley over. Maybe the toms have missed something this time."

"Or maybe a sweet, little old lady will be there and find us and take us home and feed us," Sis says dreamily.

I stopped rooting through a bin of garbage and turn and looked at my sister.

"Please don't start that again. No little old lady is going to be wandering around in a filthy, smelly back alley looking for a couple of filthy, smelly kittens to adopt. Now can we please get back to trying to find some breakfast?"

"It could happen," sulks Sis. "And I'm not smelly."

"Right. Would you please go check the street to make sure it's safe to go into the next alley?"

"Okay, it's clear. Come on," says Sis as her black and orange tail disappears around the corner.

"Hey, wait up!" I high tail it after her.

"Why did you take off like that?" I ask her when I catch up.

"Why do you have to be such a kill joy? Someone could find us and want to take us home with them."

"Listen, the only little old ladies that are coming into the alleys are going to be just like us. Homeless. There's no point in..." I finally notice the alley sis has led us into.

"Uh, Sis. This alley doesn't go anywhere."

"Yeah, so?" she growls.

"I don't want to go in there. What if a tom's in there and he comes after us? There's no way out."

"You're such a kill joy. Nothing's going to happen."

I could feel my tail curl up between my legs and flatten against my belly and my ears go flat.

"Sis, I really don't like this."

"What's the matter, Sis? Afraid the boogey man is going to get you?" she hisses at me. Then she starts stalking toward me with her ears flat,

"Or maybe some monster's going to jump out of a garbage bin and eat you all up for breakfast." By the time I realize what's she's doing, she's backed me half way down the dead end alley.

"Come on, Sis, this isn't funny. Let's go someplace else to find..."

I never finish my sentence because at that precise moment there's an inhuman scream. However, it's not a scream made by any animal I've ever heard. Then I hear crashing and yelling and feet running. Big feet, a lot of them and they're heading straight for us. Then the thing that must have made the scream comes careening around the corner and crashes into one of the garbage bins, crushing it. I can feel every muscle in my body freeze in fear. Sis puffs up into slightly bigger orange, black and white ball of fur between me and that thing and starts hissing and spitting.

The thing is big, really big. It has four legs and a tail, and that's pretty much where the similarities end between it and us. It has horns, no fur and a big mouth with impossibly big teeth and a lot of drool coming out of it. Of the four legs it has, it's only using three at the moment, since one of the front ones is pretty badly mangled. It picks itself up and shakes its head. Then it sees us.

I try to disappear into the pavement, Sis puffs up a little bigger, and that thing crouches down like it's about to pounce. Then it pounces, I close my eyes and Sis lets out a huge hiss. All of a sudden, the thing lets out a howl of rage as the ground shakes from it falling short of its goal. I open my eyes and see that the thing is laying flat on the ground and the biggest person I've ever seen in my very short life is holding onto its tail.

He's big and red and he has these two round things on his forehead. His right hand looks like it's made of the same stuff that I'm trying to disappear into. He starts trying to back up, dragging that thing with him. That's when I notice his feet. I saw someone take their pet pig for a walk once, and that's what his feet remind me of. And to top it all off, it looks like he has a tail. Meanwhile, the thing has dug its talons into the ground and is actually leaving gouges in the pavement as its being dragged backwards.

"Abe! Get the kittens!" the big red guy yells in a gravelly voice.

"What kittens?" asks someone, just around the corner.

"Those kittens," says the big guy again as he nods towards us.

A bald, blue head pops around the corner and looks at us. He's wearing strange glasses and has the biggest collar I've ever seen on. This must be Abe.

"Shouldn't we take care of...?"

"I'll take care of Ugly, you get the kittens."

"Manning's not going to like this."

"To hell with Manning, just get the kittens!"

Abe sighs and comes all the way around the corner. His arms and legs are also blue and he seems to have fins on them. He's much thinner than the red guy, and a little shorter. He also smells a little bit like fish.

As he comes even with the thing's head, it turns and snaps at him. It's as if Abe knew that the thing was going to try and bite his legs off. With a move that would have made me envious if I hadn't been terrified, he simply made the most graceful leap out of the way of those snapping teeth.

That's when Sis decides to make her move. While that huge head is turned toward Abe, she jumps at the things throat and starts kicking, scratching and biting for all she's worth. The thing removes his front talons from the pavement and tries to grab her. But by letting go of the pavement allows the big red guy to drag it out of the alley and into the street. He then reaches down and plucks Sis off of the things throat before she can get hurt and then stuffs her inside the large coat he is wearing.

As I watch all of this in fascinated horror, Abe walks up to me. I realize what he's about to do to late. He grabs me and picks me up. I may be small, but I can defend myself when I have to. I turn and start biting and scratching for all I'm worth. Fortunately for this guy, he's wearing heavy gloves.

BANG!!!

Now I've heard a lot of loud noises in my life, but that, was by far, the loudest. I stop kicking and stare at the big red guy with my teeth and claws still dug deep into the glove. In his left hand is a huge gun; at his feet is the thing with a big hole in its head. The thing isn't moving anymore. The red guy is nudging the thing with his foot while Abe walks up to him.

"Here. I believe you wanted this," says Abe. He hands me over to the red guy, glove and all and walks away.

With surprising gentleness for a guy his size, he takes me and the glove and carefully puts us into the same pocket as Sis. Then he starts walking somewhere calling after Abe.

"Did you see me? Wasn't that great?" says Sis, all but jumping on me.

I finally spit the glove out of my mouth and stare at her.

"Are you out of your mind?" I ask her. "That thing could have squashed you flat!"

"But it didn't," she gloats. "And now we're going home with someone."

"He's not exactly a little old lady."

The excitement is starting to wear off and the swaying motion of his walk and the warmth of the pocket are starting to get to me. I yawn.

"No, but at least we'll have a home," she says as she lets off an even larger yawn.

"But what if..." I start.

"Oh, stop being such a kill joy," she says as she repositions herself and closes her eyes. She then opens one eye. "Where'd you get the glove?"

"It's from Abe," I yawn hardly keeping my eyes open.

"He gave it to me."

"Oh," says Sis and she closes her eye again. Sleeping sounds good, so I cuddle up to my new glove and join her.