“Thank you all for coming,” the Maine coon began, smoothing his ear tufts with an enormous paw.
“Get on with why we’re here,” hissed a black and white tuxedo, pushing away a tumble of hungry kittens. “It’s late.”
A calico let out a snort of derision from her perch atop the fence. “Sun’s still up, Penelope.”
“The children need the discipline of an early bedtime,” she sniped primly. “Also, I’m exhausted.”
The Maine coon let out a yowl and planted his paws on the concrete driveway. “If. I. May.”
A ginger flicked his tail lazily from his cushion inside the lavender. “If you may what, Asbestos?”
“This is the house of the nice woman,” Asbestos replied. “The one who feeds the neighborhood kittens. Who built the shelter houses for the winter.”
“I do appreciate it,” Penelope said, from where she lay. She’d given up and let the kittens suckle. “In the sense that I can get more sleep. I don’t think she realizes I’m eating their food at the moment, but we don’t have to tell her that, do we?”
The ginger yawned and sprawled onto his back amid the grey-green of the lavender pile, wiggling his paws and tail. “I won’t tell her unless she threatens to cut me off.”
“Georgie,” growled the leader. “What I mean is, we owe her. And earlier today, I saw a guy walking past, real slow. I’ve never seen him before.”
Silence fell.
“You want us to do something,” the calico finally said.
“I do indeed, Wiggles.”
She stretched her front paws toward the house and lifted her tail toward the sky, looking ready to hunt. “Find him?”
Asbestos flexed a paw with lethal-looking claws. “I think he’ll come back. And I think we should be waiting.”
“All of us,” Wiggles said. “Like…banded together.”
“Yes,” he said firmly.
“Huh.” She flicked her tail. “I’ve got a decent view from here on the line of approach from the north.”
“Well, give me a moment to finish feeding, obviously,” Penelope said. “I’d like to tuck these runts into one of the shelters first. And maybe stay close by, just in case. So it’ll be the backdoor for me.”
Georgie rolled a few more times and launched to his feet. “I’ll take the west side garden.”
Bright green eyes caught Georgie’s satisfied expression. “She didn’t plant catnip this year, bro.”
“Aww…”
***
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