I hope you like the stories. E-mail any feedback or fanfics to scatflipza@hotmail.com. ::Purrs:: Thanks everybody!

Introducing Wonder Part 2
By Roalee

"That was fool-hardy, to say the least. I can't believe you had the gall to go down there. It's a miracle they didn’t tear you apart then and there.”

Spots, 'The Overprotective,' paced back and forth lecturing me about the dangers of wandering down to the Stray’s hangout. Don’t ever start a fight with them, don’t make them mad, don’t ever talk to them, and some other such nonsense that I had heard many times before from some of my other House Cat friends. He kept on explaining things to me loudly, too loudly in fact. Finally, I just tuned him out.

“I can take care of myself,” I said when he stopped to catch a breath. He knew very well that I had no patience for that kind of intolerance, but he was worried about me. No wonder, since he was my mother’s brother.

I batted around a wad of tissue that escaped someone's rubbish bin earlier. As I absentmindedly hit it over to Spots, he pounced on it with such speed that I was startled. When I composed myself, I noticed an unfamiliar scent. Looking up, I saw a skinny tan cat limping our way. Spots stopped pushing the tissue ball around as he caught the smell of the other cat. He hissed and jumped in front of me as if to protect me from assault.

‘Males,’ I thought, ‘as if that tomcat can do anything to hurt me.’

“Hello there,” I called, stepping around Spots’ defensive form. I studied the cat from a distance because he froze when Spots rose up.

He had recently been in a fight. The cat’s fur was ripped out in various places, revealing scars of past battles and more recent scratch marks that would soon heal. He had relaxed when I called out to him, standing there, swaying, watching us both with clear, blue eyes.

“You better be careful, Wonder. It’s one of those miserable Strays.” Spots sidled up beside me and hissed at the foreign cat once again.

The stranger’s gaze fell upon me and he uttered, “How magnificent.” Then, he collapsed right on the lawn, mostly hidden by the jungle of grass that had sprouted due to the neglect of the humans. I cautiously inched my way forward, ready to jump away if I had to. The strange cat stayed motionless and was still unresponsive when I finally reached him. Spots crept up warily and extended his claws, ready to strike at any sign of trouble. I ignored my uncle and examined the outsider. The cat was mostly tan with a few white hairs blended in. When I touched him with my paw, I felt how lean he was. Pity stabbed through me. He was the biggest tomcat I had ever seen though, despite his thinness. Then I wondered, ‘What in the universe caused him to come here?’

“Well?!! Is he dead?”

The harshness in Spots’ voice made me glance his way. He obviously had a thing against Strays. I looked down at the stranger and started to lick his fur against the grain to stimulate his skin and make him warmer. I ignored Spots’ look of utter disgust and went to get some food that he had brought over and left it by the tomcat’s head.

“Let’s leave him there to recover by himself. We’ll watch him from the porch. Really, Spots, he’s in no condition to fight back. He must be exhausted. No healthy cat would leave himself so vulnerable.”

Spots was still in his battle stance but soon relaxed after I gave him a look. We watched as the tan colored cat began to recover. He shook his whole body, making himself look even more fluffed out than before. No animal ever enjoys when their fur is brushed backwards, and the tan stranger was no exception.

“Jeez, it will take forever to lick this fur back. Why didn’t you just leave me to collapse gracefully and get back up with at least a small bit of my dignity? Look, now I’m a fuzz-ball!” He started to lick his fur thoroughly, twisting in almost impossible angles, trying to reach the more remote areas of his poor body before resorting to using his paw.

I laughed, starting to like this odd Stray. Spots just watched him with a predator’s interest, evaluating the other cat for any visible weaknesses. I, on the other paw, stopped laughing and tried to assess how much he had eaten in the past few days. It wasn’t much from what I could tell.

“Well, you don’t have to stare,” the cat said, breaking the silence abruptly. “I just wanted to see who Wonder was. She caused quite a ruckus down at The Shed. They kept saying...how much...audacity she had.” He still continued to lick his fur as he spoke, to my annoyance.

“I should have believed what they said about you, but I thought they had to be exaggerating. Look at you, though. You are black as the darkest depths of a pit, with a blazing red collar and the greenest eyes, green as the healthiest grass.”

His flattering words caught my fancy, but I must have heard the last part wrong somehow.

“The healthiest grass?” I asked, puzzled.

“That’s what they said.”

What could I say? I guess Strays have never seen anything greener than grass. When the tan tomcat finally finished cleaning himself, he turned out to be pretty attractive. He sniffed at the food by his feet and gulped it down. He nodded his thanks to us. Spots grew angrier as he saw how I was looking at the other cat. His fur just kept rising higher and higher, almost straight on end when I said, “We don’t even know your name. Why exactly did you come all the way here just to see me?” Then I whispered to Spots, “Quit it, Spots. He’s probably not even my type.”

The other tomcat must have heard the last bit because as Spots calmed down, the tan cat’s eyes narrowed and he held my gaze. I stared right back. He broke off first and sighed saying, “Okay, I’m called Blue. For my eyes, you know. I really did want to see who had enough cheek to get past Great White and eat from our dish of scraps. Everyone was amazed that she let you go. She told everyone to let you be and ordered me to follow you. I had some trouble with a gang of House Cats.” He hissed those last words as if they were a bad epithet.

“That’s it! I’ve had it with you... you Stray spy!” With that, my uncle Spots leapt from the porch and tackled Blue. I gasped in horror and yelled for them to stop.

“Stop. This isn’t right.” My voice rose as my horror grew into anger. “You guys, cease and desist this fighting at once!” Finally, I used my full throated roar of fury. “If you two don’t quit it, I’ll claw both of you to pieces! Do you hear me?!! Stop right now!!!” I didn’t get incensed that often, but when I did, I went into a white hot rage. If I had human hands, I would have thrown something at them.

Spots had seen me like this before and rolled away from Blue as fast as he could. He knew what I was like when I got like this. He averted his eyes from me in shame and lowered his head. I was disappointed in him and he knew it. Blue, baffled at Spots’ withdrawal, stood up as best he could. He caught sight of me in all my glorious intensity and crouched. Instinctively, he knew that I was not a cat to be trifled with. I do not tolerate pointless fighting, especially if it was over a class or tribe rivalry. My parents were from different sides of the tracks, but that didn’t stop them from loving each other or me and my siblings. The most important thing they ever taught me was tolerance.

“I think you both need to leave now.”

Blue looked up in surprise. He watched as Spots headed towards his house slowly.

“I said, leave, please.”

He scrutinized my now neutral face. He had no idea what was going on in my head except that I no longer wanted him in my presence. He got up to turn around. Unsteadily, he headed back where he came from.

“I’m sorry for troubling you, Wonder. You are absolutely breathtaking, in more ways than one,” he expressed before he got out of earshot.

‘Goodbye,’ I thought sadly.
****************************
“Lahootspala, are you still angry?”

“No, Uncle Spots, just tired.”

I smiled at him fondly. He had used the name my parents had given me. It was only known by my relatives and my closest friends. I didn’t hear it that often.

We rubbed heads and rested together. Darkness gathered around us like a blanket.

“I’m sorry, kitten. I didn’t mean to upset you in any way. Forgive an old tomcat his insecurities?”

Sighing heavily, I told him, “I forgave you as soon as you rolled away from Blue. You forget, my father was a Stray. Strays are cats like you and me, they just don’t have homes.”

Spots grimaced and licked my ear affectionately.

“Your mother brought you up right, that’s all.”

“Both my parents taught me things that I’ll never forget. One of the things was that a Stray can easily become a House Cat and a House Cat can just as easily become a Stray. It’s the Ferals and the tough Alley Cats we have to look out for.”

“I know, I just worry about you. Not being able to have any kits of my own makes me all the more protective of you.”

I wrapped my black tail affectionately around his graying form as the night wrapped us in its shadows.

[ Wonder Goes Exploring Part One ] [ Back a page ] [ Back Home ] [ Back to Top ] [ Back to FanFic Titles ]