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Ms. Titch didn’t like this place. There was another cat here, she did not enjoy the company of other cats. There were people too. Weak, prey-like people, who moved too fast and tried to hold her. She was old, her bones hurt and all she wanted lately was sleep and her dish of wet food. She was waiting, her humans would come for her. She was patient and could wait out her time sleeping.
~~~~~~
“I’m so glad you could take her,” Rosie said. “I was at my wit’s end, she’s awful.”
“I never guessed Peter and Elias had a cat,” Melanie said, considering the cat.
“Yeah, well, I had to look after her sometimes, so did Martin,” Rosie sighed. “She’s a terror.”
Melanie tapped the carrier and Ms. Titch rewarded her with a growl. She turned to Georgie.
“Why are we taking this cat again?” She asked.
“Because she has no where else to go,” Georgie sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ms. Titch, didn’t like the way this place smelled or the fact the other cat always took the good spot on the heater. She liked before, when the pain was gone and she was a Hunter, free to pounce, to stalk, to leap, to bite, to play and devour. Just like it had been when she was young. After, of course, she’d gone back to the building where she dwelt with her humans but she couldn’t get in and her humans weren’t there. She was waiting for them. Waiting for a large, cold calloused hand to come and scratch her on the head and tell her she was loved. Or maybe another hand, a smaller, softer, well-cared one, to rub her under the chin and tell her she was a muffin. She was waiting for her big human, her fellow apex predator to gather her up against his wool-covered chest and take her back inside. But her human wasn’t there. She’d follow the mist because sometimes he was the mist but it was always just water vapor, not the familiar form of her big human.
The other human, the other smaller, predator human hadn’t come either, she felt maybe he’d never come now. She wanted to smell him again, to stretch out on his warm lap as he sat and be fed mouthfuls of smoked meat from his hand. He always got on her level, he always stared at her with old eyes, and told her such things in that soothing voice, true things, and somehow she understood him.
They understood her.
She understood them.
They were her clowder.
~~~~~~~~
“She’s depressed,” Georgie said. “She misses them.”
“Why? they were bastards,” Melanie grumbled. “Anyhow, I can’t get near her, she hisses at me.”
“Maybe she’ll come around if we leave her alone,” Georgie sighed.
~~~~~
Ms. Titch slept, it was not a good dream. Her humans were there just ahead of her walking at an easy pace. They were laughing, softly, her fellows, her clowder. She could smell them too, mist, salt, silk and blood. She heard their footfalls and trotted after them, meowing for them. But somehow, they were always one step ahead. She cried louder and longer. Hoping they would stop, they would pick her up and hold her. She wanted so badly to feel their arms, and hands, to be softly stroked and murmured too. She missed them so much, they had to hear her! But now they were too far away, they were gone. She woke up, slowly. She was in this strange house with that strange boy cat nearby. They were gone, her humans were gone.
Dead?
It had been so long and she was abandoned now.
Old and alone, her bones ached.
~~~~
She needed warmth, and the boy cat was on the warm thing. She slunk forward, he raised his head, she attacked driving him off the warm thing with snarl, a flurry of claws and barred teeth. He put up a fight, but ultimately the warm thing was hers. Much better, she settled down for a nice nap. The boy cat sat nearby crying like a kitten. She remembered the kittens she had, over and over again, their soft meeps and purrs. All of them went off into the world, all left her, she didn’t even know if they had still lived. She no longer wanted to mate, not after her silk & blood human took her place of needles and bleach. But thinking of her litters and their soft little bodies pressed against hers made her feel drowsy on the warm thing. She began to fall asleep.
Then she heard the sounds of an angry human.
She didn’t care.
~~~~~~~~
“NO, NO, get off! The Admiral was there first!” Georgie shouted as she came into the room just as the fur settled and the fight was over.
The Admiral was crying, but didn’t appear to be hurt. Ms. Titch was on the radiator, one green eye still open. Georgie grabbed the spray bottle and, getting far enough way, squirted Ms. Titch right in the face. The old cat, startled leaping high with a yowl and she was off and away. Georgie carefully picked up the Admiral, examining him further, nope no cuts or bites. She placed him back on the radiator. He rubbed Georgie’s hand, closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
~~~~~~~
Ms. Titch was under a bed, she liked it there dark and away from the awful humans and the awful weak boy cat. She settled down and slept for a while, her bones aching.
She was awakened by a faint smell of blood, just a whiff of the predator smell. She stretched, yawned and began to walk towards the smell. Whether it was prey, food or fellow predator, she didn’t know, she had to find out. There were lights and noise, familiar things humans liked, fake little suns for the darkness and a babbling chatter from a box. The blind human was sitting on the couch. She sniffed the air, the blind human smelled like just a tiny bit of blood. Interested, she jumped on the couch and approached.
~~~~~
Melanie felt the cat sniffing, she heard the sound of a cat licking its face. She reached out.
“Admiral? You want some pets?” She asked.
The cat’s face rubbed against her hand.
~~~~
This human was worthy, this human wasn’t weak, there is blood on this human, this human wasn’t prey, but was like her, a predator. So greeted them with a friendly face rub, also a mark of ownership. She felt as their hand moved upwards to the top of her head… yes right there, that was the spot. For the first time in a long time, she purred.
~~~~~~
Melanie soon realized the purring cat wasn’t the Admiral. For one thing the Admiral had two ears and wasn’t so boney. But this was an improvement on the old cat’s previous hostility.
“So you’re not the world’s worst cat after all,” Melanie said, as Ms. Titch settled herself in her lap.
~~~~~~~~
Ms. Titch purred more, this lap was warm, this human was strong and safe. Maybe she could make her home here, maybe she could be happy here.
~~~~~~~~
Georgie wasn’t surprised to come home to the radio and Melanie asleep on the couch. Seeing Ms. Titch fast asleep in Melanie’s lap, however, made her smile.
In the coming weeks, Ms. Titch really seemed to improve, she opened up to them, she didn’t hiss or bite. They reintroduced her to the Admiral and the two cats seemed to finally bond. They’d spend their days cuddled on the radiator, lazily grooming each other. She slept on the bed with them. The old scarred ships’ cat finally relaxed, and seemed content.
~~~~~~~~~
Ms. Titch decided that these two humans and yes even the boy cat, were worthy. This place was safe, there was food, affection and companionship.
This was a good place to wait for her real family, her clowder to come back.
Someday she would be back with them.