The back porch was an excellent place to sleep. It provided the right combination of outdoor smells and sounds with the security and comfortable furniture of the indoors. True, the fall night was cold, but Red’s fur was thick. Curled up tightly on a sofa cushion, she barely felt the chill on the tips of her ears.
Red was hovering in that warm sea between lucidity and sleep when she heard a raspy feline voice say, “You. I know you.”
Instantly Red was at full alert. Her pupils dilated and her back arched menacingly at the sight of a large black tomcat outside, barely visible against the dark stone of the patio. “Leave here,” she hissed at the stranger. “Now."
Unimpressed, the tom regarded Red with impassive yellow eyes. “You’re that little gray queen who sometimes stalks in the ditch east of the overpass, aren’t you? I didn’t know you were a pet.” The tip of his tail flicked with derision.
“So what if I am?” Red countered with a growl. Ever hair on her body stood on end, making her appear double her size; even then, the black tom dwarfed her. If there hadn’t a screen separating them, she knew she would have been good as dead – especially with her lack of claws.
The stray also seemed aware of her disadvantage. “You’re able to be tough with a wall between us, aren’t you?” he said with a sneer. “Look at how pitiful you are – you don’t even have your claws anymore. Why would a hunter such as yourself, who still has the smell of the wild in your fur, lower yourself to be treated in this way?” He stalked towards the porch until his whiskers were only a few inches away, the white patch on his throat seeming to glow like a will-o-the-wisp in the moonlight.
“Why?” Red sat on the arm of the sofa and glared down at the tom. “Thanks to this human, I know I will have food every day and a warm place to sleep every night. I may wander at times, but I never stray far and I always return. He knows this, and he will always welcome me back.” She jumped down from the sofa and walked to the screen, where she met the tom’s gaze. Tail lashing, she said, “I ask you – why would I leave?”
“Freedom,” the tom said, his voice a low rumble.
Red’s nose twitched. “Freedom? I have the freedom to leave – but I also have the freedom to stay. I would choose love over your ‘freedom’ any day.”
For several seconds the tom regarded Red with curiosity, as if she were some strange creature unknown to him. Finally, with a dismissive flick of his ear, he turned and prowled off. “Suit yourself,” he muttered with ill-concealed indignity. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“Nor do you,” Red replied as she returned to her sleeping spot on the sofa. She completed three tight circles before lowering herself down, tucking in her paws, and drifting off to sleep, secure in the knowledge that loving hands awaited her in the morning.
Unknown "~*~Red~*~" Inspired
- 16 years, 11 months, 18 days ago
