After walking all night she found the houses. They didn’t look like her home, as these were very, very high with doors on top of each other, but there were some scraps to eat. Hiding behind some bins, Little Black Cat watched the humans come out of their houses and go to their car houses and disappeared in nasty-smelling smoke.
After a while everything became still and Little Black Cat saw some birds. Her tail started to swish. She knew birds. They were FUN! She hadn't ever caught one yet, but she loved stalking and pouncing on them and listening to the squeaky squawks they made. Finally she gave up as most of them were sitting too high for her to stalk, and anyway Little Black Cat felt hungry again and went looking for food. She went past the bins, heading for a door that had really nice smells coming out of it.
“You’ve got some hope! We all get shooed off every time we try. The human sometimes throws water at us.”
The aged voice made her stop and look round. It belonged to a scraggy black and brown cat sitting on the wall next to the door.
“I am hungry and I am looking for my home,” Little Black Cat replied, jumping up onto the wall.
“Take it from me, go for the bins. Its much easier!” the cat replied. “I haven't seen you before so you can't belong here.”
Little Black Cat bowed her head; she was talking to a matriarch. Although she couldn’t remember her mama, somehow she knew she had to be respectful.
“I know I do not belong here, Lady, but I don’t know where to go to now,”
“Stay with me, little one, I will show you where to hide, where to eat and where not to be. One of my babies looked a little like you the last time I saw her.” There was a pause while the old cat stepped down to the ground. “The human I had then took all my babies away when they didn’t need milk, but this baby’s father was a Pedigree so they stayed a few more weeks while my human gave them to other humans. Hissssss!”
The next few weeks Little Black Cat stayed with the matriarch, learning to survive in a housing estate. She learned how to scavenge and to eat fast before anyone shouted at her or tried to take the food away from her.
The old black and brown cat also explained that some humans had houses where they let their cars live when they didn’t want them. Little Black Cat found that very strange, but then humans were strange!
One very wet day she sheltered in an open car house, hiding amongst big boxes to keep warm and dry. The humans who owned the car didn’t see her when they shut the house when the day was over, so she was shut in with the car and lots of boxes.
Little Black Cat sat patiently in a corner waiting for the humans to come back. A while later she went to sleep, curled up in the corner at the back of the car house. She dreamt of where she had grown up. It was warmer than the car house and smelled much nicer too. Her paws twitched as she dreamt, dreamt of chasing balls, of nice food and warmth.
Suddenly the doors were opened, and three human men started moving the boxes with lots of noise and a lot of loud voices. Little Black Cat was scared and pushed herself back into the corner and a bit of smelly rag fell on her. The humans moved the car out then started to move all the boxes into it.
“I think that’s it,” one of the humans said a little later. “Those old rags can stay – no point in moving rags as well. Come on, let’s lock up,”
“Yup, that’s all our clutter. Toss me the keys and I’ll lock up behind you,”
The doors started to close. Little Black Cat watched as the door slowly shut. She knew she should move quickly if she was to get out but she was too frightened. The door closed completely, leaving Little Black Cat in a cold, empty and very big, dark space now that the car and the boxes had gone.
