I am a two-month-old stray kitten. I was just crossing the street when a speeding motorcycle hit me, sending me briefly flying through the air.
My whole body hurts. Limping, I try to find a place to rest. My vision is blurry and my head is spinning—I even bump into someone’s pant leg.
“Meow—”
A pair of warm human hands picks me up. I hear a gentle voice say,
“You poor little thing, has your mama left you too?”
The woman who found me is wearing a wrinkled shirt. She smells a bit sour, even worse than I do.
I really don’t want this smelly human touching me!
I try to wriggle free, but I’m in too much pain.
Seeing me struggle, she looks nervous and gently strokes my head with two fingers.
“Don’t move, don’t move. You’re bleeding! I’ll take you to see a doctor.”
Hmm, her touch actually feels kind of nice.
Alright, since she’s so concerned about me, the mighty King of Cats, I’ll let her help me—just this once.
And then, I regret it.
This awful human hands me over to a man in a white coat.
He sticks a long, thin needle into my leg. I hiss at him, trying to scare him away. But the man isn’t afraid at all—he even imitates my meow.
How disgusting!
Nasty humans! Once I’m better, I’ll make sure they feel my claws.
The man in the white coat tells the woman, “She’s badly hurt. Several bones are broken, her leg is fractured, and her organs are injured. Honestly, she probably won’t survive.”
He’s lying! I’m perfectly fine—at least, I could still eat two whole fish sticks if I tried.
But then the woman starts crying. She gives the man in the white coat a lot of money and begs him to save me.
The man sticks a bunch of tubes into me and locks me in a cage.
The cage is small and cramped. Next door, there’s a castrated tomcat named “Lucky” lying on his back, fast asleep.
That silly Lucky! Our bellies are the most vulnerable part—how can he just bare his like that?
But the man gives me a can of food, and it tastes great. I decide to stay here for a while and get a few more cans.
The woman comes to see me every day.
The second time she visits, she doesn’t smell sour anymore, and she’s not wearing that wrinkled shirt.
She crouches in front of my cage and pokes her fingers through to scratch my head.
She waves a delicious-looking meat stick in front of my nose.
Hmph, silly woman. Since she’s being so nice to me, I’ll eat a little—just to be polite.
But just so you know, I’m not being greedy!
But why is she staring at me and crying again?
Is she scared by my eating?
Hahaha.
I stay in the cage for a long time. The man in the white coat gives me bitter medicine every day and sticks needles in me.
But after every “attack,” he gives me something tasty as compensation.
Life here isn’t so bad.
At least I’m not hungry, and no other cats come to pick on me.
Lucky, the cat next door, spends his days snoring on his back.
There’s a woman in a white coat here too, and she’s a real weirdo.
Every morning and evening, before the man shows up, she opens Lucky’s cage and cuddles him like crazy. She buries her face in his belly, sniffs him, and even kisses his paws.
She acts like she wants to eat him!
It’s terrifying.
Chapter 01
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