One overcast night in Miami, Florida, a small car stopped for a moment in front of a long, empty driveway. A black cotton bag landed on the driveway. From inside the bag, tiny claws pushed apart the strings holding the bag closed and a pair of wide yellow eyes appeared, just in time to watch the car drive away into the night.
Meow, a tiny kitten cried. “Wait! Come back! I’m scared! Don’t leave me here all by myself! Where is my mother? Where are my brothers and sisters?” The world looked so big.
Crawling the rest of the way out of the bag, the kitten peered up the driveway. Frightened and shivering, he sat down and took a moment to clean his shiny black fur, which had become ruffled from being trapped inside the bag. After thoroughly licking his leg, he first rubbed it across the tufts of white hairs under his chin, and then attended to the few white hairs scattered across his little chest. His tiny black nose twitched as he picked up new, unfamiliar scents.
Meow! “Hello. Is anyone here?”
Clouds moved in and the wind picked up. Soon he was being pelted by rain. The kitten shook off the drops of water and started searching for a dry place to hide.
He wandered down the poorly lit grass patch, looking for trees or bushes to hide in, but there weren’t any. He walked as fast as his little legs could carry him toward what appeared to be a large unpaved space. He stopped when he heard rustling in front of him.
Meow? Who’s there?
He tried to peer at the dark area in front of him, but couldn’t see anything. He slowly inched forward toward the rustling noise and stopped when he saw a large creature. He hid behind a wooden pole to his left and watched as the dark creature dug through a small bag on the side of the grass, clearly seeking something that had once been inside it, possibly food.
“Meow?” he repeated, trying to say “Hello” to whatever large animal stood before him.
His eyes widened as the creature stopped digging and stood up on top of the bag, letting the kitten know he would have no part of this meal. The creature turned to confront him and the kitten suddenly saw the markings around its eyes and noticed that the claws it was using to paw through the bag were much bigger than the ones on his own small paws. It wasn’t an animal he’d ever seen before, but he immediately sensed the danger. The kitten took a step back and almost fell into the street beside him. The creature gave a low growl to reinforce the point that the kitten wasn’t welcome.
The little kitten jumped up and tried to scurry past the creature who had returned to digging in the bag. He lost his footing and slipped off the embankment. He righted himself, turned around, and an across the black pavement, which was lit only by a flashing yellow, street light. He was so focused on getting away from the masked creature, that he didn’t see the headlights of an approaching Corvette.
He made it halfway across the street before the bright light blinded him, and he was splashed with water. He stumbled backwards, rubbing his eyes and landed right on the bag the dark creature had been digging in before. He continued to rub his eyes. When he removed his soaked paws from his face, the dark eyed creature was looking down at him. “Watch it,” the creature said, his growling voice a clear warning.
Meow. “I’m sorry,” the kitten said softly, hoping the creature wouldn’t use those claws against him.
The only choice was to run back into the crosswalk. This time he watched for cars as the street light continued to blink yellow. With his tiny paws, it took several minutes for him to get to the sidewalk across the way. Cold, wet and afraid, he was desperate to find a place to hide. He looked around, but couldn’t find anything. He walked past a large grassy field, but didn’t see any bushes. He kept walking, getting more tired and frightened, as he walked further away from the street lights behind him. Suddenly, he stopped. He looked up a long, dark driveway and saw two vehicles.
He scurried up the driveway, which led to a yellow house, as fast as his little legs could carry him and dashed under a tan car just as the sky opened up with yet another gush of heavy rain. Feeling slightly safer, he curled up into a tiny ball and watched the rain fall, wishing he was back home where he’d felt loved and protected. He wanted to be dry and warm again.
He continued to shiver as time went by with no sign of his family anywhere.
Sad thoughts went through his mind. Why did they leave me here all by myself? What did I do? Mommy. I want my mommy. Why did my mommy let them take me away? Doesn’t anyone want me?
Exhaustion overtook fear. The kitten’s eyes slowly became heavy and he fell asleep.
The next morning, he awoke to the sound of birds singing. The rain had stopped, so he crept slowly out from under the car, his stomach growling loudly Not far from him, sunbathing on the steaming pavement, were two brown anole lizards.
The tiny kitten hunched down, his stomach low to the ground, and pounced! He managed to catch one of the lizards by its tail.
“He got me, Vicky,” the captive lizard cried out to his companion. “Save yourself. Make a run for it.”
Vicky scurried away as fast as her four legs could carry her. She’d miss Alex, but it she had to save herself, just as he had said.
Alex looked up at the kitten with fear in his eyes. The kitten was small, but the paw on his tail was too heavy for him to pull away. “I’m done for,” he cried out again.
The kitten stretched out to smell Alex. Curious, he nipped the twitching tip of Alex’s tail, his own little black tail fluffed up, displaying excitement at his catch.
Alex turned around, his mouth open in defiance, and hissed. Twisting, he jerked hard, disconnecting his tail from his body and then he started to run away. Looking back over his shoulder, Alex said, “You thought you had me, kitty, but my tail will grow back.” Alex laughed as he disappeared into the bushes.
“Meow.” This was an interesting development. The kitten’s tiny pink tongue slipped out to lick the twitching tip of tail still trapped beneath his paw. It didn’t taste too bad. Hungry, the kitten finished eating the tail Alex had so kindly left for him and then licked his paws clean. Yawning wide, he looked around for a safe place to take a late-morning cat nap. Now that the sun was out, he was able to find a nice spot beneath some bushes and curled up into a tight little ball, yawning again before he closed his eyes.
He was not alone in the yard, however. A cardinal sat perched high in an oak tree, and found his morning call interrupted by the snoring of the kitten who had settled into a deep, sound sleep.
“Hey down there,” the red cardinal called out.
The kitten rolled over on his back and stretched, tiny paws curling as he kneaded the air.
“Wake up! Wake up now!” the cardinal repeated. “You are disturbing my morning song.
The kitten opened one yellow eye and looked up into the oak tree.
“Yes. Up here!” the cardinal cried out.
The kitten stretched again and rolled to his belly, opening both eyes.
Meow. “Oh. Sorry, I didn’t see you before.”
“Well, you should look up more often. Did you know you’re a loud snorer?” The cardinal jumped to a lower branch; head cocked to the side as he glared down at the little black kitten.
Meow. “No, you’re the first one to complain about it.”
“Well. Now you know. I’ve never seen you before. Are you new here?”
The kitten glanced around, shivering when he remembered getting stuck in that bag and dumped off in the driveway.
Meow. “I guess so.”
“How did you get here?” the cardinal asked.
Meow. “I’m not really sure,” the kitten replied sadly. “I couldn’t see through the bag. I just know I ended up in the driveway and a car drove off, leaving me behind.”
The cardinal shook his head and fluffed up his feathers. “Mmm. Humans can be so cruel sometimes.” He bobbed his head slightly, as if nodding to himself. “Well, good luck to you, and try to keep the snoring down, especially when I’m singing.”
The kitten sat up as tall as he could and stared up into the tree, wondering if the cardinal could possibly help him get home to his mother and siblings.