And now a word from the Peep

After reading the installment that Miss Rudy posted late last evening, I thought about how nice it would be to ask Peep and LT what they would like to see written about them. Unfortunately, I’m not one of LT’s favorite people, unless neither Jay nor Mary Rose has been around and he is hungry. Since LT seemed well fed and Jay isn’t away, LT will have nothing to do with me. Peep on the other hand had a few things to say. I told her what I’d been writing so far, and she was delighted with most of it, but had a few things she wanted to include in the story, so here goes –

Peep, sadly is the product of a broken home. Her father was a wandering tomcat who left her mother before she was even born. She regrets that she only met him once when he came to visit her mother and got a badly scratched nose for his trouble. You see, he hadn’t been very nice to Peep’s mother that day, and had criticized the kittens. He said they were scrawny, and she replied that if he’d been providing food for them, they wouldn’t be so skinny. She then scratched him and he left.

Peep was the smallest of the family, and was picked on by her brothers and sisters. Fuzzy was by no means the largest of the other four, but he was the fiercest. He began bullying her as soon as their eyes were open. Her one sister was a black and white cat, and looked like Miss Rudy with short hair. She wasn’t exactly kind to Peep, but she wasn’t as mean as her brothers. The largest of the kittens was named Bruiser, and with good reason. He beat up all of the other kittens, and even scratched his mother when he was only two weeks old. The rest of them ganged up on him and he settled down a bit. He left the litter probably sooner than he should, because he was caught by a local fox and provided a tasty supper for him. The other brother was Roger, and he was the smartest of the bunch. He bugged Peep only because the others did. He was much more interested in learning about things. He was adopted early by some visitors to the family, as he was a handsome black tom.

Once the kittens were old enough, their mother gave them the boot, well that is she strongly encouraged them to move out on their own. Peep didn’t really think she was old enough. She was definitely the smallest of the kittens, and was also the shiest. When they’d all lived together, her cat mother had protected her at least a little from her siblings, but now she was truly at their mercy.

If one of them had food, they wouldn’t share it with Peep. If the owner of the property they lived on (you couldn’t really call him an owner because he sure didn’t take care of them) put out food, as he did every once in a while, the other cats would chase her away and not let her have any of it.

Starving and miserable, Peep decided to go into the woods to die. There was nothing she could do right. She couldn’t hunt well enough, wasn’t smart enough and no one, but no one, liked her. She moved through the woods on the side of her property, and found an odd looking tower. It seemed to be a bunch of metal legs that went up as far as she could see. She couldn’t figure out what it was for, and considered trying to climb it and jump off. It didn’t look easy to climb, so she kept going. Next she saw a truck, or part of one, and then a low building. There was a largish truck next to it and then an area of lawn.

As Peep sidled along the edge of the woods, she was spotted by a tall thin man. He saw a cute and very scrawny kitten that looked to be no more than a month old. He knelt down and made little noises, like fake meows and hissy noises, except they weren’t threatening. He put his hand out towards her, but didn’t rush at her. Peep was intrigued by this person. The only people she’d seen so far were loud and large, and didn’t seem to like cats (except for the one who’d taken Roger away). She hunkered down and watched the man, who continued to make the nice little noises. Peep edged a little closer, but was afraid to go right up to him.

The man got up and slowly went into the house, and came out with a bowl of something that smelled delicious. He put it down where he’d been kneeling before and backed off a little bit. Peep was so hungry that she couldn’t resist that food. She crept up, almost on her belly. She was so scared, but even more hungry. She stuck her nose into the food and ate it as fast as she could, while still watching the quiet man. He just sat there and watched her. When she finished, she ran as fast as she could back to the edge of the woods. Still he stayed there, and he began to talk to her and tell her what a beautiful little kitten she was.

Oh, this was so new to Peep! She’d been called runt, scrawny and a bunch of names she didn’t even want to think about by Bruiser and Fuzzy. As he talked he sat down on the ground, perfectly willing to sit and talk to Peep for as long as she’d stay. He kept one hand out a little bit towards her, but he didn’t try to creep up on her or pounce or anything.

Peep felt her little heart melt just a little bit. It had frozen into a hard little lump because of all of the sadness she’d had in her few months of life. A little sound came out of her mouth, although she hadn’t even meant to say anything. She just said to the man, “Peep. My name is Peep.”
It seemed like he understood her, because he smiled a big smile and said, “Peep! You peeped at me.”

Peep didn’t think she peeped. Baby chicks peeped, and she wasn’t a baby chick, but she did have a dainty meow. The man made a little chirping noise, almost like a wild bird and rubbed his fingers together. Since he’d called her by name, Peep took a chance and slunk towards him along the ground.

The man just held out his fingers and let Peep sniff them. After she’d smelled him, he gently reached and scratched her head. Oh, what a feeling! No one had ever scratched her head before, and it had been weeks since her cat mother had given her a bath. It felt so good she started purring. The two of them sat there getting to know each other, Peep and the nice man.

He said his name was Jason, but people called him Jay. He said he had a cat that lived with him named LT, but that he had really been looking for a little black kitten to make their home complete. For a moment, Peep thought that he might mean Fuzzy, but he was smiling at her so much she knew he meant her. Finally he picked her up and carried her into the house where he introduced her to LT.

Peep told me that this was the best day of her life, and the second best day was when the Mommy came to live all the time with the Daddy. She told me that she tends to forget that there was a time when the Mommy wasn’t there. Peep says that with the Mommy she now has the family she feels she never had, and that she really wishes the Mommy would come home soon






Photo courtesy of FurKids, a non-profit no-kill animal shelter in Atlanta, Ga. http://www.flickr.com/photos/furkids/146201628/