A ruckus was heard throughout the kitchen as yowls and clattered equipment was blurted out every second. Jerry was seen jumping out from the sink with bubbles everywhere, and Tom galloping across the counter to catch his foe. They've been doing this all morning, right when Jerry awoke to steal some bread in the fridge for breakfast. Jerry was snickering with delight, because he knew that Tom wouldn't get him today. Tom was just so darn stupid sometimes, but it was still quite fun to trick the cat into failing at each pursuit.
Jerry managed to jump out of the way as Tom leaped to grab the mouse. Jerry took this opportunity to jump out of the kitchen window- before sticking his tongue out at Tom. Tom's face grew red and fumed, he leaped out of the window to chase after Jerry and was sure he gripped the mouse. However, Tom didn't realize his mistake beforehand when he found out he missed- Tom landed on a rake conveniently placed under the window, causing the handle to swing up and hit him right smack on the head.
Jerry stood nearby with a hose and thrust it upon the dizzy cat. He quickly ran to the water spout and began to turn it all the way to the labeled "Danger" part. Tom snapped out of his dazed state and bore his teeth at Jerry. However, he received a slap in the face as the hose came to life, squirting everywhere and tangling Tom in a mess. Tom yelped and tried to escape the entanglement, but it grew worse and finally the hose exploded from all the pressure in the wrap. Tom, dizzy from the impact, landed with a thud on the muddy ground.
Jerry laughed and giggled at his plan. He merrily skipped over to Tom and tugged at the cat's whiskers. He lifted the head up and saw that there were yellow canaries in Tom's eyes, and in a very impossible way he waved those birds away to be free. Pretty sure that Tom was out for the time being, Jerry hopped on onto Tom, the pipe, and then back onto the kitchen window to return to getting his breakfast.
Moments later, Tom finally awoken from his unconsciousness. Still a bit loopy, Tom stumbled around to regain his balance. He looked around and saw a blurry image of a dark orange figure on top of his fence. Thinking it was Jerry for some odd reason, Tom grew angry and clumsily lunged to the figure. However, before he could react, the figure lunged back with a strange aggressive force that pinned Tom back on the ground. Tom yelped as his head banged onto the hard dirt. Tom's mind finally cleared up as he saw the real figure- it was a new cat.
Scruffy looking fur matted here and there, he had a dark brown coat mixed with some orange highlights. It was a stripped tabby with very piercing yellow eyes, but he didn't look too ugly- just roughed up. Tom also noticed that his claws were out and he was bearing his sharp teeth in a playful grin. Was this one of the alley cats in the city, or just a cohort of Butch's Tom never seen before? Either way, Tom nervously grinned back and shrugged, trying to imply an apology to the fellow cat.
"Well looks like I found myself a new neighbor!" said the cat. "The name's Carney, and I believe yours is Thomas?"
Tom blinked, not knowing how the cat knew his name. Carney pointed his head towards Tom's feeding bowl where his name was written in plain sight. Tom smiled nervously again, and tried to slip out of Carney's grasp. The new cat let go and Tom brushed himself off from the mud and dirt.
"So Thomas, I see that you have a little pest problem in your home? How long have you had him?" asked Carney. His tone emitted something off the thought of being sly, but Tom supposed it was just his voice.
Tom shrugged, but jerked up. He remembered Jerry- that darn mouse probably having a feast in the fridge! How long has it been? His owner will surely pummel him if all the food is gone, plus there was a delicious ham inside that Tom wanted to devour himself. Tom quickly went to the window and saw that Jerry was carrying mass amounts of tiny food back to the mouse hole. He looked like he was having the gosh darn time of his life. Enraged, Tom was about to leap back in when Carney tugged his tail back down.
"Easy there, you don't want to cause a commotion for the mouse to run away do you?" Carney hissed in Tom's ear carefully, "Between you and me you aren't the best mouse catcher."
Tom frowned in disagreement, but Carney snickered again, "If you really want to get rid of that mouse, watch and learn."
Tom saw Carney carefully make his way to the front door of the house and crawled inside the cat door, his lean body low to the ground and his movements slow and steady. When he disappeared from the view, Tom looked back to the window and wondered how Carney was going to appear from the kitchen doorway. Surely Jerry wound see, right?
After a few minutes of nothing and getting more irritated by Jerry stealing food, Tom saw out of the corner of his eye a figure on top of the kitchen cabinet, directly above where Jerry was stealing food. How the heck did he get up there so fast? Tom watched intently, his ears raising up not caring if Jerry saw or not. As Jerry made his way towards his mouse hole, suddenly Carney leapt from his hiding spot at top speed. He yowled a bone chilling screech that unnerved Tom. Jerry, spooked, dropped everything was swatted by the new cat.
Jerry landed on a wall hard and looked up frightened. He tried to run away out the kitchen but Carney was already there, bearing his teeth and clawing at the mouse, getting dangerously close with each swipe. Jerry squeaked and went back to the kitchen, climbing up the counter as Carney was close behind. Jerry tried to do what he did with Tom earlier and jumped into the bubble sink to confuse the cat. Paws struck into the water and tried to get Jerry out. Jerry dodged every one and took a fork that was in the water and jabbed it at Carney. The cat yowled in surprise and took both paws out. Jerry put the fork away. He couldn't stay in there longer, he couldn't breathe. Jerry took a risk and tried to leap out of the sink very fast. However, Carney loomed over him with a slightly bloody paw and swatted him hard.
Jerry got his head banged down vigorously, the claws that were out scratched his ear hard and tore it a bit. Carney then threw Jerry up in the air and began to thrust him into everywhere surface around. After a few more hard swats Carney lifted the frail mouse up and grinned. Jerry hardly moved, tired out and hurt, and his ear was slightly bleeding. The cat finally chuckled as he examined his work, "Feisty this one. You see Thomas, a real hunter breaks its meal down until it can barely have enough energy to think straight. Try that next time."
Tom looked bewildered at what he saw. The scene that had unfolded before him was very strange, there were no strange pot smashing or elaborated plans to outwit eachother. It was just… hunting. Carney licked his chops and was about to swallow Jerry, bearing those disturbing, glistening sharp fangs, when Tom suddenly shot out and snatched Jerry out of his grip. Carney glanced at Tom who was wide eyed himself, and raised an eye, looking at him questionably. Tom clutched Jerry in his paws, a bit alarmed at why he did that, but shrunk under the piercing stare.
Carney smirked and said, "Well Thomas the mouse was really yours from the start. Think of my efforts as a neighborly gift from me." Carney slinked past Tom, his tail traveling under Toms chin roughly. He then hopped out of the window sill and scampered back over the fence with one great leap. He was gone.
Tom blinked in unease, but then looked down on Jerry who was regaining himself. The poor mouse touched his ear, and was slightly disturbed to see bits of blood from it. He looked up at Tom in a pleading expression from the cat he knew, slightly sniffing a bit. Even though he felt a pang of guilt, Tom frowned at the troublesome mouse. He wanted to eat Jerry himself, right then right there. However, instead Tom simply put Jerry down onto the window sill next to him. Jerry blinked, and then scampered away down the counter and back into his mouse hole.
Tom could swear he heard some sniffling, so he crawled down himself and rested himself near the mouse hole to listen. Tom quickly groaned to himself about the whole morning- what weird cat.