January 9

Where Brodie was dashing and merry, rather like a dairycat Robin Hood, Krebs was dark and mysterious, able to use his allure in covert ways. He was fearless and not at all likely to lay on poofy pillows between potted African violets. 

He leaped onto the moonlit road and headed toward town.  He had just finished his watch over Mama Pedgie and the kitten, being spelled by Raspberry who’d arrived for her morning Company stay.

“Thank you, dearie,” Pedgie had told him, for his vigilance had discouraged night-roaming predators. Krebs was satisfied to see the kitten rolling around, attempting to catch its tiny tail.  Things seemed secure on Booster Hill. 

 The eastern sky began to lighten and as Krebs paced on, yellow and pink rose from the horizon where last night’s starlight still touched the earth.  Krebs appreciated the sunrise as he loped along (the human idea that cats have a limited sense of color is typically wrong).  He was thinking about Pansy.  A sepia stain ran down one side of Pansy’s nose, pooling like melted caramel on the left side of her lips. The opposite side of her nose was bright white.   Krebs smiled at the recollection. Pansy was beautiful but unpredictable, sometimes sweet, sometimes snappy.  He missed her.

He traversed the small valley at the bottom of Booster Hill and padded up the next incline where the sun gleamed yellow on the transparent ice coating every bare branch. He’d reached Long View Road.  He stopped.

Usually Cat Carrier was well up on every event in Shenango, and Beamer, with his Allsence, often intuited when things were about to occur.  But there had been absolutely no indication of what Krebs now saw before him.  Where the day before there had been an open expanse many acres wide of frozen brush, stands of pine, and naked oaks and maples, there was now a dozen or more enormous land moving machines and trucks standing abreast as if waiting for a starting pistol shot.  There was also a sign:  Future Location of Wrightley Manufacturing.

“No!” Krebs yowled, his voice cracking in the cold air. Half expecting to hear machine engines roar into action, Krebs looked wildly around.  He breathed easier… there were no humans to be seen.  

“Got to get to Beamer!” Krebs broke into a run.  Though it was several miles to town, the Nocturne cat raced the rising sun, thinking only of the animals, insects, birds and other creatures that lived in the thickets and fields on Long View Road.