The Unruly Toy

 

Chapter 5 - When a Cat Meets a Winter and a Winter Meets a Cat

 

 

 

Winter loved blues. Disturbingly, so did Justin the cat's latest toy, Brian. There was something fundamentally wrong with that. The toy was claimed; excepting Justin the cat himself, nothing and no one should've been capable of claiming even a tiny bit of its heart.

Winter. So many things had changed since the summer. After the fire, he had moved out of this house and, finally, found his way to Pittsburgh, where he belonged: with his toy, Brian. However, throughout the summer, he had been at odds with the human. By taking a dog instead of him into its den, the unruly creature had offended him. To punish it, Justin the cat had denied the toy his company for the first few weeks, and even after that he had never let the toy touch him. The toy would learn its proper place. It was only time!

It had seemed like a good plan, but it backfired. How could he have guessed what happened in the fall? Just when he had decided that, step by step, very slowly, he would let the Brian-toy back into his graces, suddenly, he was back in Toronto.

Of course, it was not his idea. The humans decided to move again, and for some unfathomable reason, they thought that he should move with them. He had decided against such stupidity, but for another unfathomable reason, he did move. One moment, he was in Pittsburgh, settling for a nap; the next, he woke up in Toronto.

How was that possible? He had no idea, but as a consequence, he was again separated from his beloved toy. The state of the matter made him see red. He was mad at faith, he was mad at his toy but, above all, he was mad at the two adult humans living in his house. While he was away, the two unclaimed females had rebuilt the upper floor of the building, but it didn't even begin to cover for the fact that they were the reason for the move from Pittsburgh. They didn't even try to hide their meddling: by their own words, the move had happened at their command! Once again, the mice living in the root cellar of the neighboring house had borne the brunt of his dissatisfaction, and just out of spite, he had buried all the little victims in the bed of the two females. Their reactions to his "gifts" had been quite amusing. Loud, but amusing.

So, because of the meddling females all he could do was to wait, again. And he did, week after week after week. Like at the moment, he was often looking out of the second floor window. There was nothing much to see: a few trees and bushes, some of the backyard, and a stretch of the street at the side of the house situated at the corner of two streets. No cats were in sight, no humans. Just the dog.

The one that his toy had taken to its den. The dog that belonged to the toy's cub. Soot. The dumb dog was wintering without a hint of blues. As long as there was enough food on the plate and eager hands to scratch it behind the ears, the creature was happy and carefree even though the world had gone crazy around it.

Over one particular night, the world had turned into an inappropriately cold, wet and white place. In his five former lives, he had never experienced anything as disturbing as that. Since that night, there were huge piles of the white stuff everywhere. In spite of that, the dog went out of the house every single day. Several times. Of course, it came back cold, wet and white, spreading the inappropriateness around the house. And, as if that wasn't enough, most of the time the dog was out, it was behaving in the most inappropriate way.

Apparently, the dumb animal found the cold stuff entertaining. With its tongue lolling out of its mouth, it chased the wet flakes, trying to catch them before they touched the ground. Well, the top of the piles, really. An equally riveting thing was to run around in the newly fallen whiteness of the driveway. The dumb animal buried its nose up to its eyes into the fluffy stuff and played the part of a miniature snowblower. The beast looked ridiculous.

He would never have acted with such a lack of concern to his dignity. If there had been a reason to go out from the house he would've walked calmly down the driveway and taken a look at the traffic. He would've greeted other cats, equally dignified, that were taking a stroll down the street. But, there were no cats about. Like him, the other cats in the neighborhood were smart enough to stay inside their houses.

He could've kept watch at the upper floor window, but unfortunately, from that vantage point one couldn't see the stretch of the street in front of the house. Without the chance of seeing the cars turning into his driveway, what purpose would such an effort serve? Since there really was no good reason to go out, the traffic would have to do without his expert supervising.

The window sill was a good place for a nap, though. The dumb dog, barking at something in the yard below, had just startled Justin the cat awake from a perfect afternoon slumber. He had been dreaming...

It was a silent night, the moon high in the sky. Without turning a leaf, without moving a grain of sand, without making a sound, he was sliding through the thick foliage of the forest floor. Behind him, equally silent, moved his human toy, Brian...

In contrast to the toys he had had in his previous lives, the Brian-toy was a predator. Of course the toy was nowhere near as good a predator as he was, but for a human the toy had fine instincts for stalking a prey. With a shudder, he remembered Terry. The man had been an herbivore! To be burdened with a toy with prey-instincts had been so wrong.

No wonder he loved this toy so much!

It broke his heart that the Brian-toy's visits were as rare as before, in the spring. Since the unwanted move, his human had visited him just twice: one weekend-visit and an even shorter visit during the big festivities a few weeks ago. The only good thing about that visit had been the fact that when the toy left it took its cub, Gus, with it. With the cub left also the dog, Soot.

But of course, the dog didn't stay away. After just a few days, the cub and the dog came back, but his toy did not come with them. What kept his human away?!

For the next time, he had met his human twenty-two hours ago, but it was a reunion out of a nightmare. His toy had gone batshit crazy!

Always unpredictable, the Brian-toy arrived without a word in advance, managing to surprise everyone, even him. He was alone in the living room as the toy opened the door and invited himself in. His surprise turned into relief, his relief into joy and his joy into shock in a blink of an eye.

On one black-clad shoulder, the toy carried a tiny, white bundle of feathers!

"Hi, Gold. Where is everybody?" his human greeted him.

"I'm Justin," he meowed at the toy, without a glance at it. He was staring at the offending sight of the bird. "Get off my human, you silly bird!" he ordered the creature sternly.

"Who?" the silly creature wondered.

"Don't even think about it!" his unruly toy said. "My little Winter, here, will not make a good meal for you, rat trap!"

My little Winter? His poor toy! It thought that the bird was its toy, it believed that it could own a toy. In its separation anxiety the toy had lost its mind.

"Daddy!" a cry from above disturbed the moment.

The Gus-cub ran down the stairs and into its sire's waiting arms, toppling the bird that took wing. "I didn't know you were coming!" the cub said.

"I didn't know I was coming, either, son." The toy smiled at its happy cub. "I just found myself in the plane, on my way here."

"Love you, daddy."

"Love you, too, Gus."

"Who's that?" the cub asked as the bird settled on the Brian-toy's shoulder again.

"Who?" the bird interjected.

"This is Winter, a baby owl."

"It's so tiny!"

"It'll grow."

The sire and its cub prattled away, and a moment later, the two mature females and the immature one, too, added to the cacophony. All the attention was on the toy and the bird. Nobody paid any attention to him, the cat of the house.

Such was the status quo in the Saturday afternoon as Justin the cat sat on the upper floor windowsill, listening to the blues-music coming from the open door of the guest room. The cat watched his toy playing with the silly bird. It was cocking its head to the beat of the music, and his toy was smiling softly.          

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