Salvage Yard - Chapter 3

First Row: Skunky, Big Kitty, and Dozer

Second Row: Orange Kitty, Raccoon and Chickadee, and Little Kitty

Top: The Man  

C h a p t e r   3

Dozer was done with his food. He wanted to explore the yard, but every time he walked out about six feet, he'd suddenly be snagged by the chain. Still – for a few times at least – he kept figuring that the next time he walked forward, the chain wouldn't be there, but it always was. He'd been in this situation enough times to know he was gonna be stuck there at his house for the whole day. Resigning, he laid down with his big old head on his paws. And it didn't take long for his eyes to get heavy, with an impending nap bearing down on him.

Just as he was beginning to drift off, he heard a “MEOW!!” right in front of his face. Drugged with sleepiness, he raised his head with a wobble. There stood Orange Kitty Staring at him.

“What Orange Kitty? Are you gonna tease me about not being able to chase you?”

“No! You wouldn't be able to catch me even without that chain around your neck! Ha!” Then Orange Kitty got serious. “The man trapped Little Kitty. She's in a big plastic box on the front porch.”

“I don't see the problem,” said Dozer, laying his head back down.

“Errrreow!!” spouted Orange Kitty. “Dogs are SO slow to get things!”

“Oh?” murmured Dozer lazily.

“If the man has her trapped he may HURT her!”

Dozer raised an eyebrow. He thought about how he had stopped before 'finishing her off.' Why couldn't he just do his duty as the 'junk yard dog' like he was supposed to? He contemplated what had happened earlier that day. So many times he had chased Little Kitty around the yard. He never even wanted to catch her. The fun part was the chase. And now that he'd actually met her, the thought of hurting her made him sick.

“We are friends now, aren't we, Dozer?”

“That's funny to me...” said Dozer. “...being friends with a CAT.”

“Listen, Dozer, this is very serious. I don't know if you realize it...but Little Kitty is my mother.”

This piqued Dozer's interest and he raised his head. “Really? No kidding?” He awkwardly propped himself up on his stomach. “But you're orange?”

“I know...I know. It's just the way things happen with cats. Some of us are like our mothers, and some of us are like our fathers, and some of us...aren't like either parent.”

Dozer cocked his head in thought. “But what can I do? I have this chain. I can't do anything!”

Orange Kitty got closer to Dozer. “You can call the bird. She rides on that raccoon's head. And HE has hands like the man. He could open the box and free Little Kitty!”

“Ah! Good idea...for a cat!” Dozer stood up and faced down toward the tire pile, “Chickadee??! Chickadee? We need you!” Within a minute, there was a two note song in the air, getting closer...and closer. Then they heard a fluttering in the trees above them.

“She's here!” said Orange Kitty, and he smiled with his eyes.

From a branch about six feet up, and over Dozer's house, came her magical voice, “I saw what happened.”

Orange Kitty was happy to know everyone was up to speed on the situation. “Call Raccoon! He can open the box!!”

“Wellllll...” said Chickadee, “I don't know... the terrible truth is that last year Little Kitty pulled my eggs out of our nest right after I laid them, and when they splattered on the ground...she ate them, yolk and all!”

“Oh...” Orange Kitty thought for a moment. “We usually catch voles. They're slow and can't see very well. They don't even realize how loud they are in the leaves. And in the winter, it's easy to just follow the bump of a trail they leave under the snow. But... Little Kitty has a taste for eggs, I have to admit. I can't tell you how many times the man has chased her out of the back yard in the morning. Usually she eats all the scrap eggs first.”

Everyone was quite for a moment. And with another two note song, Chickadee's mate came in fast and landed next to her on the branch. They touched beaks.

The more Dozer thought about it, the more he wanted to see Little Kitty free again. “I have an idea.”

“Well, that's some encouraging news,” teased Orange Kitty.

“The man is not very kind to me. He doesn't talk much either. Every day he brings me my food and then walks back in the house. Usually I can patrol the yard, but today he has me chained. I never know why.”

“It was so he could capture Little Kitty, without you chasing her,” said Chickadee.

“Oh, wow, you're probably right.”

“Your idea, Dozer!?” Orange Kitty was growing quite impatient now.

“Yeah, yeah...” Dozer looked up as if to tie his concepts together so that they made sense to the other animals. “I'm getting older and I have...well...put on a little weight...”

“Shocking, Dozer! We hadn't noticed at all!”

“Orange Kitty! Grrrr... If you tease me again, the next time we're out in the yard, I'm gonna relieve you of your other rear leg!”

“I'm sorry.” Orange Kitty smiled with his eyes.

“My idea is that, Chickadee, if you help us free Little Kitty I will make a deal with her that she can have some of my food every day. Often times it has egg in it too. And her part of the bargain will be to promise not to eat your eggs.”

The two birds looked at each other for a long moment. Then sighed, “OK. That's fair. But you better be able to convince her, Dozer.”

Dozer smiled, “I think together we can convince her. She will be happy to know that we worked together to get her out.”

Chickadee looked again at her mate. He fluffed his feathers for moment. They touched beaks. Then she sang her two note song. And her mate followed with his slightly lower tone.

Immediately, from the pine needles and leaves at the edge of the woods they saw Raccoon appear. Orange Kitty and Dozer both stared in awe. Chickadee flew down and landed on Raccoon's hairy head. She bent over and seemed to whisper something in his ear. He blinked a few times and then pulled his little black hand up to his face staring at it. He nodded.

“He'll do it!” chirped Chickadee.

Dozer smiled a big tongue-filled smile. And Orange Kitty smiled with his eyes and gushed “Thank you SO much Raccoon, and you too Chickadee! We cats have never appreciated your kinds enough.”

They were all happy that a plan had been formulated. Chickadee flew off into the front yard. And Raccoon scurried along the woods' edge on the other side of the house. Orange Kitty was excited to see how things would go down, and he hobbled off back along the same small trail he'd come down from the front yard. Dozer just stood there transfixed on the house, cocking his head back and forth trying to hear what was going on. Chickadee's mate flew off into the back yard.

Little Kitty was growing depressed. She lay there in the box on the hard plastic, panting every now and then. It had been a long time since Orange Kitty had left her there. Inside she heard the man walking around and grumbling to himself. She wanted to feel sleepy so she could just relax but she was far too anxious.

Way off in the back of the yard, behind the rear fence, Skunky was snoring. The sunny area he was sleeping on would slowly move and he would unconsciously roll over until he was on it again.

He dreamt about his den and how he used to be curled up on his mama's tummy. He could feel her licking him again and telling him what a strong kit he was.

He heard two notes floating in from the outside world into his dream den. Then he seemed to see Little Kitty at the entrance, just sitting there looking at him. As he raised his head a bit in his dream, he got a better look at her, and when he did he noticed his mother was gone and he got sad. He said to Little Kitty, “Why did she leave me? Where did she go?”

Little Kitty shifted in Skunky's mind, but smiled with her eyes, and then said to him as if she were speaking directly to him in the real world, “Once we lose something that is attached to us, it is gone for good.” He woke with shiver.

There, right in front of him was Chickadee's mate. “Hi!” said Skunky.

“Follow me,” said the bird and took off into the air toward the front yard.

Skunky was still a little tired but he got up and followed, very curious to find out what was so important. He thought maybe Chickadee was about to tell her stories. When he got near Dozer's house, he slowed a bit. Dozer was chained and was turned towards the man's house. So as not to surprise Dozer, Skunky said as calmly as he could “Hi!”

Dozer was surprised and spun around quickly. “Skunky? Where have you been? We're on a mission!”

“We? Who?”

“All of us, Skunky! The man caught Little Kitty in a trap! He's gonna...” Dozer thought for a moment before finishing as quickly as he could talk, “...um...do something bad to her. So, we're gonna rescue her. Raccoon has hands like the man and is going to open the box.”

“Really? Wow!” said Skunky, still processing.

Just then, Orange Kitty came peeling back around the corner in his awkward running style. “No! No!!” he yelled. He skidded right into Dozer's empty food bowl.

“What??? What's wrong?” asked Dozer.

Skunky was agitated, and paced back and forth. “Yeah, what? What??”

The man is back outside again with a different box, trying to move Little Kitty into it! Raccoon is too afraid to come out of the woods.

Skunky pondered it all and then stopped pacing. He stomped his little feet hard on the ground. “I know what to do... I'm very dangerous. Everybody knows that, right? Even the man?”

Orange Kitty looked at Dozer and opened his eyes wide. Dozer shrugged slightly. They both looked back at Skunky. Dozer said, “Yeee...Yeah, Skunky...you're veeery dangerous.”

Without thinking further about it, Skunky strutted off toward the back of the house. When he got there he heard a lot of shouting in the front yard. He stopped and looked back at Dozer and Orange Kitty. They just sat there and stared at him. Gulping hard he stomped his feet hard on the ground, then walked around the corner.

When he had made his way up the small hill to the front yard he saw the man hitting the plastic box and shaking it. The other box was old and made of cardboard. The man was trying to shake Little Kitty out of the trap and into the other box from above, but she was doing her best to stay in there. This made him angry and he felt his tail rise.

Skunky determined that the man would fear him and drop the plastic box so that Little Kitty could escape. It seemed like as good a scheme as any other. So he walked right up beside the man and his two boxes.

It took a moment for the man to realize Skunky was standing there. But when he did see him, he stopped suddenly. Little Kitty reached out of the trap and swiped the man's hand with her front paw. At this the man pulled the plastic box back up into the air and snapped the lid shut. He looked down at his hand. But it was OK, just some surface scratches.

Skunky stamped hard on the ground with his tail up. He moved quickly backwards and then charged forward for a few feet. He did this over and over again, drawing ever closer to the man, who was taken quite off guard.

“Shoo!!” yelled the man. “Go'way!!” He waved his free arm at Skunky, while slowly placing the plastic box on the muddy grass. Something was definitely wrong with this Skunk. He seemed too forceful. “You got rabies or...or somethin', don't ya?!" He yelled.

Skunky held his ground, and hissed a bit. Slowly the man backed up. He kept looking over his shoulder at the front door. Skunky knew the man was gonna make a run for it. Instinctively, Skunky began to turn his body so that his rear end faced the man.

“Oh no!!” shouted the man, who ran as fast as he could up on to the porch. He jostled with the front door, looking back over and over again at Skunky, who wiggled his tail. Finally, the man got the door open and jumped inside. There was a lot of banging around inside the house.

Skunky immediately turned back around again and faced the trap. “Little Kitty, Little Little Kitty!! Are you OK?”

“Rrraeow! Yes...for now. A bit shaken, she winked. But you need to leave or you're gonna get hurt. The man has scary tools...”

Then from behind the plastic box arose a little masked face. It was Raccoon! He bumbled around the edge of the box looking it over, before settling in front of it.

Loud noises came from with the house. The three of them could hear the man yelling and cursing. “Gonna be the end of this!! Where'd I put that case? Argh!! I'll show 'em! FREELOADAHS! This is MY land; MINE!!”

Raccoon fiddled with the latch on the front lid of the box. Out of nowhere Chickadee landed on Raccoon's head. She bent down and whispered something to him. He stopped what he was doing and listened intently.

“Hurry!!” came Orange Kitty's voice from the side yard.

“Yeah,” said Skunky “hurry up!!”

Raccoon seemed to peer off into the distance, then he blinked his eyes. Chickadee's mate flew down and landed on the railing of the front porch, looking into the window of the man's house. He looked back at the box then in the house again. Just as quickly as she'd arrived, Chickadee took off again and Raccoon returned to his fiddling.

This time he concentrated on the bottom corner. Skunky began to pace back and forth. They heard Dozer bark in the back yard howling, “What's going on??” Orange Kitty wanted to go back and tell Dozer what was happening, but he couldn't stop watching. Dozer could only see the side view of Orange Kitty. “Please?? Owwooo!”

Then all was silent for just a fleeting second. Raccoon looked up, CLICK!!

The front door of the box popped open. Little Kitty came bounding out. And then stopped. “YESSSSS!!” she cried, “I'm free!! I'm FREE!”

Raccoon wasted no time trotting back to the woods. Little Kitty raced over to Orange Kitty and they both took off around the corner as fast as they could. Skunky was beaming. He stomped on the ground and looked up toward the sky tightly closing his eyes.

Then the front door opened. There the man stood with a shiny tool. Anger and hatred seemed to pour out of him in. This only increased when he saw that the plastic trap box was open and that the cat had escaped.

He narrowed his eyes, turned and spit over the side of the porch. Then he raised up the shiny tool up to his face and pointed it right at Skunky. Skunky didn't know what that meant. He sat down and looked at the man.

A burst of air passed by his nose. Then almost at the same second there was the loudest sound he'd ever heard. It hurt his ears. Behind him a large chunk of grass burst up into the air. And from the back yard Dozer howled, “RUN SKUNKY, RUN AWAY!!”

Skunky had a bad feeling about this particular tool. It was much more dangerous than he was. He turned and ran faster than he thought he'd be able to, skidding slightly and around the corner of the house, then past by Dozer and into the woods.

The man ran down the front steps and followed Skunky's path into the backyard. There sat Dozer, chained to his dog house, standing and panting. The man lowered the shiny tool. He met Dozer's eyes. And they just stood there looking at each other.

“Useless...” said the man in a quiet tone to Dozer. “You are just useless.”

Dozer sat down, cocked his head to the side, and then further rested on his stomach with his front paws straight out in front.

The man lowered his head and said something at the ground. He then turned and walked away back into the front yard.

Dozer sighed heavily and looked around him. The sun was getting a bit lower in the sky now. He wished so much that he could join the other animals and celebrate Little Kitty's release. He dropped his big chin onto his from legs and whimpered a bit. It was all a little too much. It was all just a bit too close...