A fat tabby cat lies on the side of the curb watching the cars passing by. It’s been two days since his owner passed away and now he’s prowling the streets with no sense of direction at all. He was getting pretty hungry, but he was too tired to raid garbage cans for food, so he continued to lie there. A little girl sees him and runs up to him. She starts to pet him and asks, “what’s a cute cat like you doing out here in the streets by yourself?”
The cat turns to the little girl and says,
“Meow*”
*”I am out here in the streets because my owner mysteriously disappeared a couple days ago and I left my home to go look for her. While looking for her, I bumped into Irene, a former girlcatfriend of mine. I asked her if she had seen Wendy, my owner, and she said no. Then she invited me out to lunch and I said yes because I realized I haven’t eaten in a while. We went to the nearest garbage can and found a half-eaten fish and some old fruit. We started eating and talking about cat stuff, when suddenly a gang of mean looking cats appeared and demanded Irene to give them all her catnip. She looked awkwardly at me, then at the other cats, and pulled out a small bag of catnip from under her fur and handed it to them. The leader of the cat gang growled, “don’t let it happen again,” and the gang left. I asked Irene what that was all about, and she explained to me with tears in her eyes that she got kicked out of her home by her owner because she kept peeing on the carpet, and was desperate for food and shelter. She said that the gang that was just here work for Marcos, her cousin cat that is involved in shady underground catnip company, and that in desperation, she went to Marcos for help. Marcos let Irene stay in his mansion, which was owned by a family who, coincidently, runs an underground heroin business, but that’s not important. Though Irene had a place to stay, she still had barely any food to eat because Marcos owner was never home, and neither was Marcos. Irene broke into Marcos’ catnip supply and stole a small bag of catnip so she could sell it on the streets for some cat dollars to buy some real cat food, as she was tired of eating out of garbage cans.
And that’s when I bumped into her, while she was on the street trying to sell the catnip. She told me that when Marcos realized that she left with some of his catnip, he probably sent his goons to track her down and get the catnip back. After telling me the story she started crying and said she had nowhere left to go and needed my help. I told her I was in a little bit a rut myself, as my owner probably abandoned me and I don’t have a place to stay either.
Irene then told me about a cat shelter four blocks down from our street; she said that the owner welcomed all cats and that we could crash there for a couple days and figure stuff out. So, we headed there in search of a place to stay. Unfortunately, when we got there we realized that the cat shelter was more or less a dump. There were just so many cats there and they were all filthy! Irene and I fought our way to the front door where we finally found some cat food, so we ate. Feeling just a little refreshed we turned to leave when suddenly a boy picked up Irene and took her from me! There was nothing for me to do except watch Irene be taken from me. I stood there motionless, but then I decided to go after her. I ran down the street but I couldn’t keep up so I laid down on the curb to catch my breath. That’s when you walked up.”
“I think I will take you home because you are just so cute,” said the girl. She picked up the fat tabby cat and turned to her mother.
Prologue: The fat tabby cat received lots of food and love in his new home and lived happily ever after.