A different perspective

A man on the inside

The kitten is having trouble eating. She's probably never eaten solid food before. The cat food is pretty stale. It's a miracle that Dad hadn't thrown it away. He hadn't used it since Mom left. Despite her age, the kitten kept chewing. What a little trouper.

There's a commotion outside. I run to the window and see that there must have been a hole in the chicken shed. I grab my camera from the bed and start filming. The workers beat the chickens and throw them back into the hole. They move a plank in front of the hole and hammer it on. I close my camera and grin. That's one more piece of evidence that I can use.

I download the video onto my computer. This isn't one of my best works. It would have been better if I had had time to get my go pro. That way I could get closer to the barn to film. This would have to do. After editing the footage I put it in an email and send it to the animal rights groups I have managed to make contact with. Since the government says it's illegal to film cruelty like this, they are more than happy to have a spy on the inside. And I am even happier to be that spy.

So far I've contacted the main groups, PETA, the Animal Liberation Front, people like that. There's also a group called the representatives of animals or something like that. They aren't as interested in the barns though. They do love getting footage of that as well, but they seem to want more information on the animals in the basement. The cats and mice.

I don't really know why they have taken up such a specific interest in the animals in the basement, but I guess they want to help every animal here. They are also different in other ways. Rather than getting the large scale setting of the abuse, they ask for photos and descriptions of specific animals. They also are very keen on keeping tabs on Molly.

After sending the footage, I turn on the million year old television sitting in the corner of my room. I slide in one of the few movies I actually have managed to sneak upstairs; mainly just Pixar and Disney. The beginning scene of Ratatouille begins to play. I grin. I can never tell what film I am putting in because my tv only uses the black box type movies and the stickers with the titles on them have all been eroded away by time and my brothers fingers.

Molly jumps up onto the bed beside me. She has gotten much stronger. When I first brought her up to my room, she could barely purr.

As she curls up beside me, she stares attentively at the screen. It's almost like she's watching the movie with me.