We're A Small Pack
by Kathy CummingsShe smelled him before she saw him thru the crack between the wooden slats of the fence. "He is not as tall as I am. Probably only about 70 pounds; only two-thirds my size. Kind of fuzzy, too; not sleek, like me. He noticed me! He's coming over to the fence. Should I let him sniff me thru the crack, so he'll know we're the same? He's roughing up his hackles and lowering his head. Now he's in a silly looking stiff legged walk. I'll just crouch my front half, wag my tail and laugh at him. Hopefully he'd rather play than fight. I've been guarding my area long enough to have a well worn track along this fence, but there's never been another like me on the other side of it before. It will be nice to have someone to talk to who can understand without difficulty. And here he is having decided to be pleasant after all. I'll curve my head and tail so we can sniff each other easily despite the fence."
"Hello. My name is Missy," she said to the single eye peering thru at her after the introductory ritual was finished.
"I'm Rover. Your smell is strong and all over the place. You must have been here a long time," he answered in a gruff and sleepy voice.
"Yes, my pack lives here. We're a small pack, not really a proper pack. We've only one male and he's a cat!"
"A CAT!" he practically roared. "What are you doing in a pack with a cat? Don't you know they have nothing in common with us? They are sleazy little characters good for nothing other than eating -- or at least tearing limb from limb."
All friendliness gone from her stature, Missy's pack loyalty came out in a tone Rover would surely take heed of, "Peter and Patti are members of my pack and if you so much as hurt one hair on one of their heads, I'll rip your throat out. And don't think I'll hesitate just because you are like me and they are not. They were here when I got here and they took me in as much as the pack leader did."
Rover was taken aback at the unexpected turn in Missy. Being new to the area, having been packed in a crate and hauled for the past three days under sedation, he was grappling with the distress of finding himself in an environment where cats could become a member of his pack. He was a known cat killer in his old home and thought well of by those he conversed with on account of it. Now here was one of his own kind threatening his life if he harmed one. It was too confusing, especially since his head wasn't quite right just yet, so he asked Missy in his most pleading voice to tell him how it was these cats came to be in her pack. Hopefully her story would help him understand or at least make the throbbing in his head stop.
Missy was not happy to remember those days before she came to be in this small pack of one human female, two cats and herself; but Rover looked so dismayed, she decided she would tell her tale, starting at the beginning of her life as she remembered it:
As a pup, I was adopted by a family of humans who were not prepared for me to grow into a dog of my large size. One day, when no one was home but the big male, he called me into the car and took me for a long ride. We stopped in this wonderful meadow where he threw the ball for me. Chasing and bringing back the ball he would throw was my favorite fun. He kept throwing it farther and farther until it went into the trees on the far side of the meadow. I ran fast, but it was lost in the brush so I started my circle hunt for it. Just as I saw it, I heard the car start. I looked up to see it driving away, so I ran as hard as I could across the meadow and followed it down the road. I thought my human had forgotten me, so I barked as I ran hoping he would hear me and stop. I ran until I couldn't run anymore. My paws were bleeding. My tongue was dragging the ground as I gasped for air and tried to cool down. I flopped under a tree and lay there panting. What could I do? I was alone in a strange place. No food, no pack, no secure place to sleep. After a while, I could breathe normally again. I was starting to feel hungry, too.
I had never killed to eat before, but I found a burrow of ground squirrels that were pretty easy to catch. It didn't take long before they disappeared, tho. Many days passed and I grew weak with hunger and was feeling sick most of the time. I was laying under a tree one day when I heard a big human male trying to be quiet as he walked thru the woods. He went right by without seeing me, so I followed him, staying out of sight. I wasn't sure whether I should trust him after having been left there by the last big human male I'd known. He had a big stick and when a deer was in sight, he raised the stick and a deafening noise came out of it. The deer ran and I followed it. I was too weak to follow closely, but it was hurt so its scent was easy to track. I didn't want to find it too quickly anyway. It had big antlers and weak as I was, I would be no match for those!
When I finally came upon it, it was dying. I gave it a lethal bite and then gorged myself on it. It was so good to eat fresh meat! I had my fill for a number of days on that deer, even having to fend off others who insisted on sharing my good fortune. After the deer was gone, I could find nothing else to eat. Nights were getting really cold and even in the daylight, the warmth of the sun wasn't enough to break the chill from me. I found a tree where the base had been struck by lightening, making a shelter just right for me. I crawled in and hoped something to eat would come along before I was too sick to be able to catch it. I was so cold, tired, hungry and sick.
I don't know how long I was in there but the next thing I remember was my new pack lead found me. She was very gentle and calming. She coaxed me into coming out of my little lair, but I hadn't the strength to make it all the way on my own. She carried me from that tree to her car. I don't know how she did it! She's not so big and can't even begin to lift me now. I was a lot skinnier then, tho. She brought me to this house and laid me on a blanket in her bed as she fixed a bath of hot water and things that smelled of medicine and flowers at the same time. I watched her the whole time because it was reassuring to look at her and she was careful to stay in my sight. When she came close, she talked softly, then she carried me in and laid me in warm water. My first instinct was to jump out of there, but it was nice to have the chill coming right out of my bones. I put my head against a ledge and let her hands cover my body in ministrations to the many wounds I had received while in the woods. I found myself going down a dark tunnel. When I came into the light, I was part of a big pack with nothing but those like us. We ran, we played, we hunted, we shared everything of the pack. Then I was in another tunnel and when I came out, I was back in the bath alone with the woman I knew was my new pack leader.
My whole body felt different: clean, healthier and wholesome. I looked up to the big human female and licked her hand in my thanks. That was when I noticed a big orange tomcat sitting behind her on the sink. He was just looking at me, not afraid at all.
As if he had been listening for his cue, Peter made his entrance. He jumped to the top of the fence as gracefully as his kind can and his gaze met Rover's eyes. Rover was entranced by the story, but the sight of Peter overwhelmed his mind with one single dangerous thought. He leapt, barked and snapped in one amazingly fast motion, especially given he was still recovering from his trip and sedation. Peter gave him his most disdainful look then proceeded to ignore Rover completely. This, of course, made Rover crazy to have at him until Missy's roar broke thru the haze his brain had become. She would kill him for hurting Peter, he finally remembered. In his most apologetic tone, he asked her please to continue her story. She did:
My first inclination at seeing Peter was much like your own. I was so hungry, but I wouldn't have met with any more success than you just did. I let the pack leader pull me from the tub and towel me off. I was starting to feel well enough to sit up, but when I tried, I fell. She held me gently on the floor as she continued to dry me. That was when Patti appeared. Patti, like Peter, is an orange tabby, but not nearly so large. She has the heart of Florence Nightingale and immediately upon seeing our pack leader drying me with a towel, she began drying me too, straightening the tangles from my fur with her own rough tongue. I laid my head on the floor and gave myself up to the ministrations of my new pack. Soon Peter was helping too. With both cats at work, our leader decided it was time I had something to eat. She left us there on the floor. I didn't want her to leave me. I tried to get up to follow, but the weight of the cats held me in place. They smelled of the leader and began to purr to calm me. The next thing I knew, I was being fed a clear broth. It was so good. I wanted to keep eating and eating, but the pack leader stopped feeding me. She made me wait a while, but then she brought another bowl of broth. The pattern repeated: I waited, then more broth came. Each bowl was a little thicker and I quickly grew strong enough to follow her to the source of the delicious smell.
When night came, we all gathered together to sleep. The bed where we sleep is big enough for all of us to curl up together and I found it very relaxing to fall asleep to the rumbling purr of Peter and Patti. It reminded me of the other place, the place thru the tunnel, except we weren't all of the same kind here. I realized this was my new pack and I knew that even tho we are different, they helped me and are deserving of my loyalty.
Rover thought about his own "pack." In his house, all the pack members slept apart except the big male and big female. He wasn't even allowed in the house; only in the garage. Maybe this new environment wouldn't be so bad after all; he just might be willing to sleep with a cat if he could sleep inside. But Missy wasn't finished with her story:
After a week, I felt strong and able again. That was when the pack leader took me out for the first time. She wanted to go in the car, but I wouldn't get in it. Not after my last ride, I wasn't getting in one of those things again! So instead we walked and she never pulled on me even once. That was probably because there was no way I was going to leave her side even for a second. After living alone in the woods, I was sticking very close to my new pack leader. We walked a long way. I was starting to feel tired when we went into a place I remembered: it smells horrible and everyone wears white coats. After you sit around long enough for your nose to hurt from the stink, you go into a tiny room and the ones in the white coats sting you like bees. I was patient thru it all, tho, because my pack leader was right there all the time and kept talking to me. I tried to teach her to talk properly, but she can't get it. I understand a lot of what she says, but she doesn't understand me all the time. Sometimes I think she does, but then later I realize it was just a lucky guess.
The white coats stuck me a few times. I was sleepy when we started on the walk home. A man in a truck stopped and offered us a ride. My leader looked at me while she talked to him in their language. I wasn't sure what they were saying, but I think it was about my not getting into her car before. Finally she got into the back of the truck. I jumped up, but almost missed. The man caught me as I fell and put me in with my leader. I was happy to lay there with my head in her lap and then we were back here. Now I get in her car when she wants me to. I even walk ahead of her sometimes when we go out. This is my pack and I know they'll take care of me.
Patti chose this point in Missy's story to come out of the house thru the door on a much smaller scale, but so much like Missy's. She walked up to Missy to rub on her legs with a purr Rover could hear. Rover's head was hurting from the effort to understand how things could be so different here than where he came from. He left the fence to scratch at the door. He wanted to be with his people and feel as much a part of his pack as Missy did hers. No one let him in, tho, so he flopped down on the step with a great sigh. Some things about this new place were going to be just like the old one.
Missy and Rover got to be friends thru the fence. Once in a while, they got to go for walks together, usually at the instigation of Missy's pack leader. They enjoyed the park where they walked and then were allowed to run free together. It was fun to run with one like yourself, everything went so much quicker than walking with those slow pack leaders! Rover came to think of himself as an extension of Missy's pack, but he never could get used to the idea of packing with cats. Inevitably, Missy was put to the test. Peter was intent on a bird and without thinking, followed it right into Rover's yard. Rover was on the porch when Peter and his prey topped the fence. He got up and was already running toward Peter when Peter realized where he was. He didn't turn to run, as Rover expected. Instead he turned into a spitting, hissing monster about four times Peter's normal size. Rover paused his advance. The commotion made by the cat was so loud, Rover completely missed the splintering of the fence as Missy came thru it. She had him on his back and her teeth at his throat before he knew she was there. Fortunately for him, her pack leader had also recognized Peter's yowl and wasn't far behind Missy in coming thru the hole she'd made. She yelled at Missy to halt just in time to save Rover from Missy making good her word. Her leader had an unharmed Peter in her arms by then and seeing he was all right Missy left Rover where he lay on his back in the dirt.
Patti was so distraught, she didn't know whom to console. Rover was the one who seemed to be in the greatest need, but it was all because he was about to hurt Peter. Patti wasn't sure whether to try to minister to him or just go back in the house, but her big heart won. They were all surprised when they found her licking Rover's face. Rover, it seemed, had decided having these particular cats in your pack was all right after all.
posted by Tim @ 4:33 PM
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