A Cat Named Molly

Today was a good day. The sun was warm, the carpet soft, and the humans had left for the day. Molly stretched as she opened her eyes.

The large up and down brown and green form that sat at the edge of her turf swayed gently as the breeze trundled past slow and lazy. A flappy feathered snack taunted tweets toward her as she watched. Crouched down low, Molly assumed the pose, her muscles tense as she prepared to pounce. Her tongue moved, a foretaste of the food to come. Ready… Set… Aaaaaaaand… LAUNCH!

BANG!

Molly’s face met the glass hard and her paws shot up above her. She scrambled for a moment, alarmed and confused as she fell backwards. The moment her paws touched the carpet, she began to run. Left? Not-left? Up? Not-up? She had no clue where she was headed. All she knew was that the sudden loud bang was a threat and she had to get to safety.

As Molly’s heart slowed, she looked around and saw that she was under the wooden structure where the humans ate food. The humans always yelled at her whenever she attempted to explore the top. She never really cared, though the loud words towards her were always scary. She made sure now to only go up there throughout play hour – when the sky was dark and full of sparkly dots, and when the humans were asleep. Then she could explore up there as long as she wanted.

Molly brushed her tongue along her paw – a few chunks of fur stood uncomfortably out of place. Now that that was sorted, she looked around for her next source of food.

But before she went anywhere, she sat and watched the ghost near the roof.

But the ghost just stared back, so, now bored, Molly trotted over to the carpeted boxes that acted as a portal to another part of the house. She spent less of her day up there because food and comfort was mostly down here. The humans slept up there all through play hour and beyond, and there were scary loud hard shapes up there. Shapes that the humans loved to rest on as they tapped away at the small glowy boxes that were always glued to human hands. When the shapes weren’t loud and scary, Molly had approached them carefully. The shapes held lots of water but when she went to gulp the water down, the humans yelled at her some more. So now she never bothered to go near them.

She always had fun as she bounded upwards. She enjoyed the movement even more when humans ascended or descended the boxes. When that happened, the feet and legs of the humans added extra obstacles to weave back and forth between. They got mad but she never cared. All she focused on was the fun and the joy.

Molly strolled slackly past the cold room where one of the hard shapes that held the water sat. She glanced toward the shape as she made sure there was no food amongst the human fur on the floor. She stopped. She smelled. She stared. Naught. Molly turned away and moved on.

As Molly wandered toward the humans’ comfy sleep-platform, she paused. There, at the other end of the room, up on the wall, a small movement caught her eye. She’d seen these before – the small scuttly snacks that moved fast and were fun to chase. They ran on floors, they ran on walls, they ran on roofs. They ran anywhere they could, often under the tall cold box where the ham was stored. These snacks were a challenge, and Molly was ready.

Slowly, Molly stalked her prey. She focused on the scuttly snack as she crept forward, her back muscles tense as she promptly prepared to pounce. Her breath was short and her heartrate fast as she moved her butt back and forth subtly, sure that she was ready to go…

Bang! Scrtttttcccchhhhhh…

Molly’s paws slammed the wall as her claws scraped down. The small brown snack scuttled away, a toe’s breath away from her left paw. Her body reacted fast, now steered completely by Hunt Mode.

Bang! Bang! Scrtttttcccchhhhhh… Bang! Scrtttttcccchhhhhh… Bang! Bang!

Her paws and claws slammed the wall repeatedly, each swat closer and closer to her goal. The small brown snack waved long narrow feelers at her. As they brushed her nose, she suddenly sneezed, and that moment’s pause was enough to let the creature escape under the sleep-platform.

The sleep-platform was low but once underneath, there was a lot more room to move. Molly watched as the scuttly snack scampered along a jagged pattern towards the entrance of the room. She crawled purposefully along, much slower than when she could stand up properly. Nevertheless, she soon closed the gap between her and the food. A moment later, she was ready once more, and as the snack scuttled out from under the sleep-platform, she made her move as she pounced the best she could, compressed by the narrow space.

But suddenly from nowhere, another set of paws landed on top of the snack. Molly pulled herself from under the sleep-platform only to see Randy, claw through the scuttly snack’s body. Randy’s teeth broke through the tough outer shell and he shuddered as he munched down on the food. He growled at Molly, a threat to stay away. He’d executed the murder, so the snack was no longer hers. Molly skulked away, annoyed and hungry.

There was one more place that she could try. Slow and dejected, Molly went back down to the place that held the tall cold box. There was a small round vessel near to the box that frequently held small hard pellets of food. She much preferred to hunt, but when that proved unsuccessful, she was forced to make do. Molly wandered over to the spot.

She smelled vessel number one, but vessel number one only held water. She smelled vessel number two, but vessel number two held dreadful wet food that she enjoyed last week but turned her nose up at now. She smelled vessel number three but vessel number three was empty. As she lost all hope, Molly hung her head and chose to take that moment to make sure her back was clean.

As she retracted her tongue, she stopped a moment as some fur got caught halfway down her throat. Molly coughed and her stomach churned, and she knew the hard floor was no place to resolve the problem. She rushed over to the rug that she enjoyed to claw and sat as she retched. Moments later, she gagged as some goop from her stomach flushed the fur from her throat. Molly smelled at the mass of goop and turned away. She stretched and she clawed at the rug. The humans would clean that up later.

Food had proven to be a hard task, and Molly wasn’t happy. But she was also sleepy now, and not prepared to exert anymore effort towards the task. So, Molly forced herself between the cloth and the glass, back to where she could see the bounds of her turf. The small feathered snack had flown away now, no longer there to taunt her. The sun forced warm rays onto her fur as she curled up next to the glass.

She would bug the humans for food later, once they returned from wherever they went throughout the sunny hours of sleep. For now though, she was warm and happy as she floated away, back towards a peaceful rest…

TWEET TWEET!

Molly’s eyes snapped open. There were two feathered snacks just over there. Slowly she moved. Crouched down low, Molly assumed the pose, her muscles tense as she prepared to pounce. Her tongue moved, a foretaste of the food to come. Ready… Set… Aaaaaaaand…

BANG!

Molly’s face met the glass hard.