The night sky glittered across the lake. Beneath the old trees in the undergrowth, there was movement and a pair of eyes faintly glowed from the bushes. With a rustle, a sturdy, black-striped tabby tom made his way out onto the pavement of the long road.

He raised his head to take in the scents of the evening, but no scent of prey was to be found.

Reluctantly, he made his way to the large garbage bin where he was often forced to search for a meal in the winter chill.

The residents of the nearby houses threw their nasty belongings out in there. But since humans are such wasteful creatures, there would occasionally be a plate with leftover remnants of gravy or a quarter piece of bread. But if he was lucky to beat the raccoons to it and find a small morsel of meat, it would be worth any dirty trash dive.

As he prepared to leap into the bin, he heard a high pitched human yelling from a distance, "Here, kitty kitty!"

He braced himself knowing that call meant the humans would try to attack him, but from across the road he saw an alurring multi-colored she-cat looking in the direction of the noise.

"Surely she will run, won't she?" he thought to himself.

But she sat still ignoring the human.

The sound only grew louder. From her appearance, although small, she was well fed (he wondered which garbage bin she was digging in). But he wasn't sure if she would be fast enough.

Despite the nearing danger, his paws moved forward.

He didn't want to see any cat get taken.

Now he could see the human tapping its knees aggressively.

He sprinted forward to charge at the human.

The she-cat turned and saw his eyes widen, and she fled toward the danger and scampered into its arms.

The human patted her head and she leaned in. It grabbed something from its side and fed her and brought her into its house.

In shock, he stood still for a moment. "Did she really find comfort from the human? And was it safe to take food from it?"

Curious he...

Curious, suppressing his raw instinct to flee to the darker and safer crevices between buildings that he knew well, he took some refuge in the shadow of the outside fence of the house where the suspicious human took that lovely lady-cat.

He knew how to catch birds, rats, and even the occasional spider. But a human is an untouchable enemy. Their size, their weapons, and their loud voices taught him from a young age to flee, hide, blend into surroundings, and not move a millimeter when these dangerous creatures were close by.

But a cat is curious. He silently, on padded feet, slunk along the fence, and saw a perfect perch to investigate. A garden box attached to a side window, with some tasty looking flowers, lay in deep shadows cast by the house next door. He made a graceful leap to into the garden box.

A shock, fear, disgrace! The female cat was sprawled out on the lap of this HUMAN, with her paws outstretched and her eyes half-closed in delight. The human slowly scratched her ears and head in gentle, circular strokes.

The sturdy tomcat knew this moment was life-changing. There are times when skittering away is not an option; retreat is shameful; to leave would be an insult to his claim of being a PROPER CAT.

The plan formulated quickly in his mind. It was a simple, but tried and true, tactic of distracingt the enemy long enough to execute a smooth and speedy escape. He hurriedly ironed out the details of this brilliant scheme. Create the disturbance. The human opens the door to face the enemy onslaught. He would then give the universal cat squeal signaling safety. The female feline would dart out of the door and he would lead to her to safety!

Three breaths to control his racing heart, and then he began. This tomcat belted out the most horrendous yelping meow that he ever yelled in his life! It caught the human's attention. The tomcat kept up the raucous meowing, more, more, and more!

Suddenly, the human stands up and struts over to the side door....right beside the window flower box.....