Friday, at the meeting of the Cat Club

Peep was very glad she had stayed in New Jersey rather than going with LT and Rudy to Kansas.  The Daddy would have been very lonely without her, and it sounded like they were having all sorts of odd adventures.  Cats who thought they were delusional, cats who lived in some sort of velvet prison, coyotes who threatened to eat them and talkative prairie dogs.  Peep thrived on predictability, not change.   She was dreading tonight's meeting of the Cat Club.  If Fuzzy came it would be more arguments, and the only thing Peep liked less than change, it was arguments.  And even if he didn't come, the other cats would look to her for leadership.  She hated being in a position where people looked to her for decisions more than she hated arguments.   The Daddy came in to find Peep pacing back and forth in the living room, making little low growling sounds deep in her throat.  She hadn't realized he had come home and levitated at least a foot in the air with fright.  He picked her up and stroked her to calm her.  "It's okay, Peep.  Nothing is going to hurt you.  I'm sorry I scared you, but you were deep in some sort of worries.  Are you worried about LT and Rudy?  They're doing fine with David, you know." Peep snuggled up to the Daddy as he held her.  Nothing could go wrong when the Daddy held her.  He walked over to the sofa and sat down, still holding the Peep.  She showed no interest in getting up, so he kept stroking her and talking to her. "I'll bet you feel like I did the first time the Mommy went away.  I felt kind of lost, even though I'd lived by myself for years.  I guess I'd gotten out of the habit of being alone.  I talked to her every night, and I knew she loved me and she'd come home again.  You don't even have that security, unless you're around when I get David's emails."  Peep couldn't let him know she had daily email from Rudy, that was one of the cats' secrets.   "You know, it's kind of funny that they went all the way to Kansas to find that cat who had kittens in our closet.  Those really were cut kittens.  It was nice having kittens around, especially since I knew they'd be leaving before they got to be a lot of trouble.  The last kitten who lived here was you, Peep.  Such a scrawny and sad looking kitten you were.  You never grew very large, but you're not malnourished anymore.  You're just a petite kitty with a tiny little voice that says, 'peep'.  That's why we call you the Peep." Peep was loving this.  She sat with the Daddy lots of times, but to hear him talk about when she was a kitten, well it was almost like being a kitten again, when he'd rescued her from starvation and mean old Fuzzy.   She dozed off on the Daddy's chest and didn't awaken until Greymalkin burst in the door saying, "Peep - it's time for the Cat Club.  What are you doing?"   Peep jumped up, as did the Daddy.  He looked at the clock and said a few unpolite words.  He was late.  He grabbed his keys and headed out the door, just as Peep went out through the cat door.  She found the members of the Cat Club sitting in the back yard waiting for her, except for Fuzzy.   She was greeted with, "Peep, we were worried about you!"  "We thought you'd decided to go to Kansas, too!"  Peep quieted everyone down and explained that she'd just fallen asleep with the Daddy.   She called the meeting to order, Greymalkin read the minutes of the last meeting, and they took care of old and new business in less than ten minutes.  There really wasn't a lot to discuss.   After the meeting everyone hung around while Peep recounted Rudy and LT's adventures of the week, and the other cats agreed that they lived in the best place on earth.  Everyone was in a good mood, and no one seemed to want to leave, so it wasn't until the Daddy came back, hours later that the other cats headed for home.   Peep walked back inside wondering why ever she had been worried about the Cat Club, or life in general.  The Great Cat would take care of her.  She always did.