That night I made my break, squeezing out under the fence where there was a low spot in the yard. I hadn’t expected the ground to be so soggy. I realized my fur was all wet and matted when I stood up and looked around, taking in my surroundings.
“This will make me look all the scarier to any night creatures I might encounter,” I thought. “That, and my half- mangled left ear,” the result of an attack by one of the cats in my old neighborhood.
Mellie had been sleeping when I left so I hadn’t said goodbye.
“Maybe I should have said it anyway,” I thought. Then, “Why am I thinking about Mellie? I’m free now–free to have an adventure.”
Just then I saw something move under a bush. I looked carefully. It was a tiny rabbit. My heart pounded. In my younger days, I would have chased it, but now I knew it would be way too fast for me, so I just watched it.
Then I saw another. “This is cat paradise,” I said to myself, “not just birds and rats, but bunnies too!”
I crept stealthily around the neighborhood, darting from bush to bush. I caught a frog and tossed it around a bit. As the sky began to lighten, I found a cozy spot under a bush, next to a house.
“No one can see me here,” I thought, as I snuggled down for a long day’s cat nap.
“I wonder if Mellie is in the house yet,” I pondered, as I drifted off to dreamland.
I awoke around dusk to the sound of a barking dog. Fortunately it wasn’t barking at me, but at two rabbits that were hopping through the yard. I moved slowly along the wall of the house to the corner, then scooted under a bush in the next yard. I was getting hungry and wasn’t sure what I’d find around there.
“Sure could go for a couple of tasty Florida lizards about now,” I thought. That’s when I noticed a garbage can in the yard not far from me, and miracle of miracles, its lid had fallen off! Was that a KFC box sticking out or was I hallucinating? I took a running leap and landed right on top, knocking the KFC box to the ground. Needless to say, I then helped myself to a yummy fried chicken dinner.
Whisker lickin’ good!
I washed it down with a few sips of water from a gutter drain. I wandered the neighborhood for the rest of the night, finding another cozy bed under a bush at dawn.
Two nights on my own, and I was king of the neighborhood!
“If only Mellie could see me now,” I thought, as I felt the first rays of the morning sun hit my fur, lulling me to sleep.

© Copyright 2015 Ginny Brinkley