Catboy - Eric Walters [49]
My voice cracked over the last few words, and I choked back the tears coming to my eyes.
“I don’t want to leave you here. I feel awful. I want you to know that…to know I didn’t abandon you. I’ll come back tomorrow and the next day and the next day if I have to. But if the trucks come, the hole won’t hold up. It’ll collapse. You’ll die. Miss Mittens will die, the kittens will die.” I took a deep breath. “We’re not giving up. I want you to know that, that’s all.”
I looked into the hole. I couldn’t see anything. What did I expect to see? What did I expect to happen?
I got up and walked toward the clearing, where I knew everybody would be. They were all there, waiting. I brushed away any hint of tears. My mother looked like she might cry too. I guess Dr. Reynolds had told them what we’d found.
“We’ll try again tomorrow,” she said as she put an arm around my shoulders.
I knew that was the thing to say. But if we couldn’t get them out today, would another day be any different? Would the hole even be there tomorrow?
“Look!” Dr. Reynolds called out.
I spun around. Hunter was standing at the edge of the clearing and he was holding something in his mouth. Was it a mouse or a rat— “It’s a kitten,” I gasped.
Twenty-Eight
Hunter crept into the clearing, the tiny kitten in his mouth.
“I’ll get the snare,” Dr. Reynolds whispered.
“No, don’t, please.”
“But this might be our only chance to catch him,” he said.
“We can’t catch him,” I said. “Without him, the kittens won’t survive. Miss Mittens won’t survive.”
“But what is he doing?” my mother asked.
“He’s moving the cats someplace safe,” Dr. Reynolds said. “Cats will do that when they’re threatened. Somehow he’s figured out they have to leave.”
Hunter had heard and understood me. He knew what had happened. He walked around the edge of the clearing, staying close to the wrecks and as far away from us as possible. It was important we stayed still and tried not to scare him.
Hunter stopped in front of one of the traps. He obviously remembered being in the trap before. I hoped that experience hadn’t spooked him so much he wouldn’t do what he needed to do.
“It won’t hurt you,” I whispered. “Just go around it.”
“Oh, my goodness,” my mother said.
“I can’t believe what he’s doing,” Dr. Reynolds gasped.
Hunter stepped partway into the trap. Not far enough to trigger the door, but far enough to drop the kitten in. He retreated, leaving the kitten, a little ball of black fur, in the trap! It stumbled around, meowing, too small to try to climb out of the trap.
“You don’t think that Hunter is, is…He can’t be,” Dr. Reynolds said.
“Yes,” I said, answering his unfinished question. “He is.”
Hunter disappeared. Was he going for a second kitten? He had to be. This wasn’t an accident or a mistake.
“This is unbelievable,” my mother said. “If he’s actually doing what we think he’s doing, it’s just, just… amazing!”
The words were barely out of her mouth when Hunter appeared with another kitten in his mouth. He walked directly over to the trap, dropped the second kitten into the cage and quickly turned around. The two little kittens huddled together and Hunter disappeared once again.
“I feel like I’m in a Disney movie,” Simon said.
“Have you ever heard of anything like this happening before?” my mother asked Dr. Reynolds.
“I’ve read about wild animals moving their babies out of danger, like away from a forest fire,” Dr. Reynolds said. “But this, putting them into a cage…well, I’m seeing it and I hardly believe it.” He shook his head. “I’m going to make a point of not telling anyone what I’m seeing today.”
“You can tell anybody in the Feral Cat Association,” Doris added. “We all would believe it.”
“Maybe I should go and examine the kittens,” he suggested.
“No, not yet,” I said. “You don’t want to spook Hunter. Wait until he’s brought them all out.”