I am hungry. And tired and miserable and sick, but right now I'm mostly hungry. I haven't found anything in the big bins where humans dump their garbage, because there was another accident in the mines, just when my own mother disappeared, and now there are even more humans to compete with for leftover food. And the rats all seem to be in better shape than me. Pride is no longer important to me, I have to beg for food from humans. In this district, the humans with blond hair are more likely to have food to spare. I lie waiting for a kind soul to hand me some scraps, looking as pathetic as I can. Looking at the state I'm in, it doesn't take much effort on my part. No one seems to be coming this way. In addition to everything else I'm now also bored. I feel like digging just to find something to do, but what would be the use of that? I'll just be wasting energy, and I need to conserve what little energy I have in case my plan doesn't work. The sun is extremely hot. At some point in time I doze off.
I wake up to find someone's hands gently stroking me. A young human girl is crouched down beside me. Finding me awake, she starts talking to me in a sweet voice. I don't understand what she's saying, but I do notice she has blond hair. She is someone likely to feed me. I give as piteous a meow as I possibly can. It works. She lifts me up carefully and walks off, all the while speaking soothingly. I make out the word "food", one of the only human words I recognize. I purr loudly, and she seems happy. She soon starts repeating one word very often. And rather slowly. I think she wants me to understand her. And since she's going to feed me, I try to understand. But it's a much longer word than "food", "no", "shoo", "bad", "here", "kitty" and "cat".
During the long walk, I finally understand. She keeps pointing at me or looking at me while saying that word. Just like how humans point at me and other cats when they say "bad cat". I'm being named. Which means I'm now a house cat. I'll always have food to eat. Because this human girl is taking me home. I make extra effort to make out my new name. And I do. I am Buttercup.