Cat Breaking Free
Page 30
Maybe they had been following them all along, maybe afraid of Charlie. Maybe taking some time to decide about her. Perhaps they decided that if she was treating Kit so well, then she, like the man who had cut the lock off, must be a friend. As the ten cats stood watching them Kit leaped from the saddle.
Three cats came to her; and slowly, one by one, the rest of their little clowder gathered around Kit. She said, "Stone Eye hasn't bothered you?"
"You know that old mansion to the north of here?" Coyote said. "That huge stone place, all fallen down?"
"The Pamillon mansion," Kit said.
Coyote smiled. "Stone Eye is afraid to go there."
"You made a home there? Where the cougar… Where I saw a cougar once?"
"We smelled the cougar," Cotton said. "An old smell. We made a home, for now. Those cellars are full of rats. Look how fat we've grown."
Kit laughed. They were fat. She licked the cats' ears, and they talked for a long while. Their conversation, about all manner of cattish concerns, so fascinated Charlie that she began thinking of a second book. Kit told them that Abuela would give them a home, but of course that did not appeal. "No," Coyote said, looking away toward the wild hills, and toward the fallen mansion. "We would not do that. This is our life."
Charlie said, "You will come to me, if you are in need?" They looked up at Charlie a long time. They did not seem afraid of the mare, but they were wary of the human. At last Willow said, "We will come." And as the afternoon drifted toward the hour when larger predators would come out to hunt, Kit's wild friends left her. With a last whisker rub for Kit, and a flick of ears and tail for Charlie, gestures that Charlie would not forget, the wild clowder was gone into the falling evening. And Charlie and Kit turned for home, both content, both smiling.
About the Author
SHIRLEY ROUSSEAU MURPHY has received seven national Cat Writers’ Association Awards for best novel of the year, two Cat Writers’ President’s Awards, the “World’s Best Cat Litter-ary Award” in 2006 for the Joe Grey Books, and five Council of Authors and Journalists Awards for previous books. She and her husband live in Carmel, California, where they serve as full-time household help for two demanding feline ladies.
www.joegrey.com
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
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