Willy, the Cat

Learning Survival

"What was that human going to do with us?!" I asked.

"Oh, you mean the cat capturers? I'm not exactly sure, but I don't want to find out. Humans fishing around  for cats is already suspicious enough."

"How did you know how to get us out?"

"I've been kidnapped multiple times," he licked his paw.

"Why?"

"That's none of your concern."

I shuffled my paws on the dirt until he spoke again.

"Where are you from, Willy?"

"Oh, well, my humans' house burned down very early in the morning," I explained, "so I came back to hopefully find any sign of where they took my mom."

"You have parents?" He tilted his head with curiosity.

"Just my mother, although now that I think about it...she never told me about my dad."

"Interesting..."

"But..."

"Hm?"

"I...don't think there's any hope of me finding her, again," I meowed with sorrow.
"The machine that took her was too fast."

"Machine?"

"Yeah! Those giant human objects that move on the machine-ways."

"You mean, the road?" He squinted his eyes.

"Huh?"

Smokey shook his head in disbelief, "You have much to learn."

"About?" I questioned.

"How to survive out here," he responded, "If you can't find your mother, or your humans, then you need to learn how to survive in this harsh type of living."

My stomach growled, and Smokey had noticed.

"Let's start off with collecting food..."

He started walking on the side-way of the..."road" and I followed. He stopped very shortly in front of a large, metal bucket. I remembered my humans having this outside, too.

"This is called a 'trash can', and in this life, it also means 'free food'."

He plunged into the "trash can" and tossed out some human-type scraps of what he said was "left overs".

I ate one of them. Not bad, but not the best either.

"Are you sure this is ok to eat?"

"Willy, I've eaten this garbage for years and never have I been more certain that it's safe."

After our short meals, he taught me things like the cars human go in to travel to locations and side walks that are for humans who don't like using cars to travel.
Smokey also said about how to get water. The best way would be to steal it from human backyards in small containers called "watering cans" or if we're lucky, small ponds they use for..."decoration".

"Wouldn't that make us thieves?" I pointed out.

"Sometimes, you have to be a thief to survive. The only thing is: Don't get caught. Besides, it's fine to steal especially if it's from the humans."

"Why's that?"

He glared at me, then said, "Follow me, Willy."

He curved between two houses and continued to walk until we were in another small forest. We climbed a long, steep hill that seemed to stretch on forever.
He stopped us at the top of the hill where there was a large tree with gigantic roots sticking out of the ground. There were no more trees that I could see for miles!

"Look over here."

Smokey lead me to the side of the hill. It was the town with tiny houses and buildings; It was very small from up here. I could see it all! Even my house that was burned.

"See what humans have done?" He croaked, "This used to be a forest filled with tons of life that is now just a pile of human rubbish. Not many cats know that this was something valuable before those heartless creatures came. I found out from an old, wise she-cat. Humans are powerful creatures that do nothing but take over lands without a care. They all deserve to be punished. They all deserve to die."

He then turned to me, "If us cats were strong enough, we could do something about it." He sighed, "Unfortunately, they are just too smart."

I stared, speechless with no words to say.

"What if they don't know the harm they're doing? What if they made all of this for THEM to survive?"

He replied to me with a doubtful look, then spoke, "It's getting late."

"Do you have a place to shelter?" I said with curiosity.

He snickered, "We already are at my shelter."

He lead me to the other side of the tree that I didn't noticed. There was a large hole under the thousands of roots.
Inside the hole was paper and some soft leaves to sleep on.

That night, I had tried my best to rest, but I kept thinking...

Is Smokey right? Are humans really that bad?