Lost Change - Snippets

Alone

A thin black collar was wrapped around its neck. My first thought was that it was a flea collar, but as the cat climbed higher I heard the soft jingle of a bell. The warning bell people would put on their cats, so that birds and other small animals got a warning to run.

The cat seemed to reach a height it was happy with, and began yowling loudly as it clung to the side of the tree.

...Susie could eat that.

I hated myself for even thinking it. But I thought it anyways.

It's a domesticated animal. Cats are a bit more wild than most pets humans kept, but... it doesn't know how to survive out here. It's used to having a home to go back to, to having people solve the problems it runs into. To keep it safe from predators. Dogs. Birds.

Me.

It would be simple. The cat was safe from Susie, but clinging to the tree like this, it had made itself even more vulnerable to me. I could fly around it and slash at it with my claws, and at best it could only fight back with one paw. I might not even have to kill it myself. I could just distract it, could just overbalance it by fighting it, and... maybe it would fall. Hurt itself in the landing. Or just be stunned enough by the drop.

I looked back down at Susie, who was still barking, and knew exactly what would happen to the cat in that situation.

It wouldn't even be you doing it.

The yowling paused, and the cat started to hiss again. I looked back up from the ground to stare at it again.

At the thin black band wrapped around its neck.

This creature had belonged to somebody. Someone had named it. Fed it, cared for it, pet it. Used a laser pointer to play with it, laughed at it when it meowed for them to hurry up and open the food faster. Held it in their lap while it purred.

Loved it.

And now that person was gone. Killed, wiped away by aliens. Even their home was gone now. All that was left of them was this cat.

This cat I was thinking about killing.

I closed my eyes.

Susie has to eat...

I dropped down from the branch and glided silently towards the cat. It was still hissing down at Susie and didn't see or hear me coming. I tilted slightly, holding out my arm and flexing my palm to push out the sharp claws as I flew by...

The thin black collar parted around my claw and fell to the ground. The cat let out another yowl and shot further up the tree, fur fluffed out to an almost comical degree as it fled in terror.

I landed on another branch and stared at the collar I had severed. Susie had rushed over to sniff it, and was nosing it around on the ground, likely excited by the scent of the cat all over the collar. The bell jingled a little as Susie nudged it through the dirt.

Without the bell, the cat would manage better. It would have a better chance at surviving.  Somebody's cherished pet could live that much longer.

I watched Susie for a long moment while the cat glowered silently down at both of us... then I dropped from the branch and called for Susie. The dog barked in excitement and started running after me, tail wagging excitedly behind her.

~

I lurked in the high branches of the trees and watched my target.

Susie was playing with a stick somewhere in the distance. I kept an ear perked for the sound of her playful growls in case trouble found her, but otherwise I stayed focused on the odd mass of leaves and twigs piled between the branch and the trunk of the tree. I had spotted it when a squirrel had darted out and scurried off into the forest... and rather than chase the arboreal rodent all over the countryside - and possibly into a hole I couldn't follow it into - I hid myself in the tree and waited for it to come back to its nest.