It was late afternoon when he pulled up outside the abandoned and foreclosed house. The house was half falling down. Its windows smashed and ground to pieces. The cold wind blew through the place.
Mathias looked around. He had received reports of teens doing drugs in the building and sleeping there. There were a couple of blankets lying on the dirt covered floor. He could see no signs of drug use in the building, but he had found a used condom in a corner of the lounge. At they were practising safe sex, he thought. Stepping outside he shut the door behind him. The door closed but the handle was loose almost to the point of falling off.
He would have a patrol drive past the place tonight. A loud meow interrupted his thoughts. He looked around and saw only grass and the dirt road. It sounded again, louder and more insistent. He looked under the house and saw two round green eyes peering back at him. A pinky- red mouth full of tiny sharp teeth opened to meow loudly at him. Further along a few boards were missing. He went over to it and crouch down, looking into the dark, noting spiderwebs and broken beer bottles. Not a safe place for a small kitten. The meow sounded loud and distraught from where he had left it.
"Kitten," he called and snapped his fingers in the opening. "Here kitten, come here."
The small scrawny tabby appeared in a flash. It rubbed itself against his hand, purring ecstatically.
He picked it up and took it over to his car. He sat in the drivers sit, with the kitten purring and getting dirt all over his uniform. Patting it with one hand, he called dispatch about the house. He set the cat down on the passenger seat and shut the door. Told the kitten to stay there, he drove home, fending off the kitten's attempts to walk on him.
At home he took it inside and gave it a watered down saucer of milk and some tuna.
"I'm going to need to get some cat food aren't I" he observed. The kitten ignored him in favor of eating. He wondered when he had decided to keep the little stray.
"Well if you're going to stay you'll need a name."
The kitten purred. Having finished eating it started exploring it's new home.