Catboy - Eric Walters [50]
“Do you think he’s going to bring all of them?” Simon asked.
“I’m counting on it,” I said.
Hunter arrived with another kitten in his mouth, and right behind him was Miss Mittens. She was carrying the fourth kitten. She hesitated at the edge of the clearing, but Hunter didn’t. He moved straight toward the trap. He dropped the kitten in with the other two. The three of them curled together, crying loudly.
Hunter doubled back to where Miss Mittens was waiting. They touched noses and she followed him back toward the cage.
The kittens’ cries became even louder. They sounded desperate. Miss Mittens picked up her pace and trotted straight to the trap. Hunter pressed up against her and sort of nudged her toward the opening.
“Do you see what he’s doing?” I whispered.
“I see it, but that doesn’t mean I believe it,” Dr. Reynolds said.
Miss Mittens stopped beside the cage. I had an image of Hunter giving her a shove. But the kittens had become even louder. She jumped into the cage and the door slammed shut!
“We got her!” my mother exclaimed. “We got the mother and the kittens!”
“Now if we can just get Hunter to…,” I said.
A blur of fur shot out of the wrecks—it was King! He charged across the clearing toward Hunter. Hunter leaped to the side as King, all fangs and fury, slammed into the cage holding Miss Mittens and the kittens, knocking it backward.
Hunter pounced on King. King screamed and jumped forward, trying to fight back, but Hunter had hit and run, leaping out of striking distance.
King scrambled forward, trying to get at Hunter.
“We have to do something!” I screamed. “We can’t let him hurt Hunter or chase him away or—”
Hunter dashed around King and ran straight into one of the remaining traps. The door slammed shut, sealing him inside and King outside.
Dr. Reynolds jumped to his feet. In his hands was the snare pole. He ran toward King. As soon as King realized what was happening, he ran. Dr. Reynolds tried to grab him with the pole, but King was too far away and too fast. He vanished underneath one of the wrecks and was gone.
I should have been disappointed he’d gotten away. I wasn’t. I was almost glad. Who needed him at the new colony? He was nothing but trouble, a bully, a…I felt guilty. Even King deserved to live. We still had time to catch him. Today, tomorrow or in a few days.
But I was too happy to feel bad or guilty about King. I was so grateful Hunter and Miss Mittens and all her kittens had been caught. Almost the whole colony had been caught.
I walked toward Hunter’s cage, and then I saw somebody else—Rocky. The raccoon waddled across the clearing until he was beside Hunter’s cage. He pressed his nose against it. Hunter did the same. The two animals touched noses through the bars of the cage.
“I wish I had a camera,” my mother said.
“I wish I had another vet as a witness,” Dr. Reynolds said.
“You don’t need either. It’s real. It’s happening,” I added. “Let’s just watch.”
“It looks like they’re talking,” Doris said.
They are talking, I thought. And I knew what they were talking about. They were saying goodbye.
I didn’t need a witness to know this was real and that, when I told the story in a month, a year or fifty years from now to my grandchildren, it had happened. But still, I was glad to have four other people with me to watch it. Something special should be shared.
The two animals stood nose to nose, on opposite sides of the bars, one inside, the other out. It was real, but it wasn’t. Maybe it was good I had some witnesses after all.
“Quickly! Quickly!” a voice yelled out. Mr. Singh came running into the clearing and the spell was broken. “You must leave!” he screamed. “You must leave! The police are coming!”
Twenty-Nine
We all froze. The only one who moved was Rocky. He waddled away, stopped for a second at the edge of the wrecks, looked back at Hunter, nodded and disappeared.
“You must all go!” Mr. Singh yelled again. “I will delay them as long as I can, but you must go, now!”
“Where are they?” Dr. Reynolds asked. “Are they at the front gate?”
“They are coming,” Mr. Singh