I was feeling enormously relieved as we walked away from the scene of the failed attempt at kidnapping little Fred. This had been such a close run thing and if it had not turned out the way that it did, I could easily have lost my son forever; a prospect that I did not even want to consider. Watching him staring at me with that look of adoration on his young face was heart rendering, as we walked silently along the street in the direction of our house. I knew that he was now feeling safe and for me, I was feeling so proud of Walter, a true friend who had taken such an enormous risk in order to save my son. This was definitely not a perfect world we were sharing with some members of the human race and I realised that I would have to be more vigilant when I took Fred anywhere; at least until he was able to take care of himself.
The woman, who had stolen him, probably thought that Fred would make a nice little present to give to someone, because he looked so cute and innocent and didn’t even think of how much pain and suffering that would have caused Persian Patsy and me. Some humans simply do not understand how animals think. Anyway the smell from my squirts would have definitely ruined her day and maybe she might now think twice about doing such a thing again; because there was no doubt about the frightened look on her face when I gave her the evil stare, before spraying her trapped leg and following it up with the double blast on her groceries.
When we turned the corner several of our street friends came over to see us, all asking what had happened. When I finished telling them what Walter had done, little Gladys began to sob at the thought that poor old Walter might not be coming back. I tried to explain that I had spoken to him just after the accident had happened and although he was in terrible pain at the time, he said that he was sure that a short spell in the vets would soon see him up and running once more. This seemed to please Gladys and we all knew that Walter’s owner was quite well off financially and as such would spend as much money as was needed in getting him better, rather than have him put to sleep.
We were still catching up with the gossip when Moses arrived accompanied by Bubbles Bracey. These two had hit it off right from the very start and it was now unusual to find one out without the other one being somewhere close by. Bubbles immediately came across to comfort the weeping Gladys, whilst I brought Moses up to-date on what had happened with Walter and the kidnapper. After I had finished he said that when he was a kitten, someone had tried to steal him and it was only because of the quick reactions of their next-door neighbour who had spotted the thief that he hadn’t ended up with different owners. Then he said that as he was due for his annual check up, he would be going to the vet’s the following day; therefore he would see how Walter was doing.
Fifteen minutes later everyone went their separate ways and Fred and I trundled off home. We had just wandered into our garden when I stopped dead, with the hairs on the scruff of my neck standing on end. Blocking my path was the big Ginger Tom I had fought such a hard battle with and standing next to him was another ginger cat who could well have been his big brother. This was a nightmare scenario; how was I going to fight off two of them and protect my son at the same time.
The big ginger was first to speak and said that I should get myself prepared for the next life; because by the time he and his brother had finished with me that was where I was going to be. Poor little Fred just stood staring wide eyed at these two gorillas, unsure of what to do. Then without any prompting from me, he moved in front of me and facing the two big cats, meowed as loud as his little voice would carry.
That was a very proud moment for me to see this little kitten, barely out of the womb, facing up to the two aggressors in such a fearless manner; however, even though his little show of defiance mentally spurred me on to greater heights, I had still not figured how I was going to get us out of this mess.
