Diary of a Cat

tw: implied animal abuse

For Christmas that year, I received a human.

They walked in and looked at me for a while, surely gazing at me with disgust. Then they left and came back again, and when they let me out, I tried my best to avoid them.

They put me in a little box with bars, and the box started moving! I didn’t like that very much, so I yelled and yelled until they finally let me out.

I was in an enormous room, way bigger than before. There were lots of shiny things on the wall, and there was a tree with more shiny things. I decided I would take all the shiny things one day.

The human walked towards me, and I ran away.

“Why am I here?” I shouted.

The human reached out a hand, and I ran into a room and hid, thinking of another hand from long ago.

A strange present, one I’ll have to figure out. But some cats don’t get anything for Christmas.

As the days passed, I watched the human very closely. They got up each morning and made food that smelled very meaty and tasty. Then, they sat down and began to clickety-clack on a shiny silver thing that opened like jaws.

Their food looked and smelled so tasty, but I didn’t dare try to eat it. The human would reach out their hand again, and the food wouldn’t tempt me anymore.

For days and days, I watched the human and began to realize that my Christmas present was stranger than I thought. After a while, they put away all the shiny things, and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Then, they kept clickety-clacking on their silver, which looked like a very good place to sit.

However, there was no way I would ever sit on that. The human’s voice would make my ears hurt, and I’d have to run away.

One day, the human was clickety-clacking again after eating some good-smelling meat. They hadn’t looked at me directly at all, but I could see them peeking at me out of the corner of their eye.

Finally, my curiosity got the better of me, and I asked, “Why do you do that?”

The human looked at me, and I began to tremble, getting ready to flee.

Then, they closed their silver and took out a little bag that made crinkly noises. My ears pricked.

The human took a treat—those little squares the humans from before gave me and the others—and set it on the floor. Then, peeking at me one last time, they opened their silver and began to clickety-clack again.

The human left a while after that, and the treat was still on the floor. I sniffed it. It smelled tasty, so I cautiously took a bite.

Immediately, my taste buds were flooded with flavors. This was so much better than the treats from before! It tasted very meaty and yummy, and I decided that I’d like to have another one sometime.

It was quite dull and gray outside, as I saw when I looked out the window and watched the little white flurries flit by. The human was inside all day, clickety-clacking. I wondered why they did that so much.

I was bored. Very bored. The human had hardly looked at me ever since they had brought me here. I wanted more treats. I wanted to hear what their voice sounded like. Would it be loud and angry?

Finally, I girded my loins and walked into the human’s room. They were on their silver, as usual.

“I want more treats,” I shouted.

The human looked at me, and I sensed their surprise.

Then, they smiled, something I had seen the humans from before do, and crinkled the bag.

“Don’t tempt me!” I yelled.

They crinkled the bag a few more times, and I lost it. I ran over to the bag and shouted until I was given not just one treat, but two. I ate them up in a blink.

I realized how close I was to the human and started to run away, but stopped. They were smiling at me again, and light flashed from a thin rectangle in their hand.

I had never seen a thin rectangle like that before.

The dullness and grayness outside began to give way to freshness and greenness. The human flashed more lights at me from their rectangle and would keep clickety-clacking away on their silver. Meanwhile, I found a hobby in looking outside and watching things flit by and make noises.

Sometimes, the human would leave the house. During those times, I found myself waiting by the door until they returned. When they came into the house and reached out a hand, I rubbed it with my cheek.

However, I was waiting and waiting for the inevitable day when their hand would reach out and push me roughly away, or their voice would grow loud enough to hurt my ears.

But the human always reached out a tender hand, and their voice was soft like a blanket.

One day, the human smiled at me and took out their rectangle. I felt a sudden urge to bat my paw at the rectangle, so I did. Immediately, I shrank away.

Instead of raising their voice, as I had expected, the human only smiled more and petted me.

Then, suddenly, I felt my whole body vibrate. What was this sensation? I felt all warm inside.

Whatever this was, it made the human happy. They petted me again, and again, and again, and I was happy, too.

The human had a nice voice. They would always talk to me, even though I couldn’t understand a word they said. But I knew when they were happy or sad. Sometimes they were angry, but they never raised their voice at me or made me feel scared.

Finally, I gained the courage to sit on their silver. There were dozens of little squares under me, and they indented slightly beneath my weight.

The human took me off the silver and set me in their lap, and I wasn’t sure what to do. But they were quite warm, so I figured I’d stay for a while. I made myself comfortable, and when I looked up at them, they were smiling at me. This made me vibrate lots.

“I finally figured you out, Christmas present,” I told them.

The human began to pet me.

“You’re young, like I am. And you have black fur on your head. And you always clickety-clack on your silver.”

The human laughed then. I liked the sound of their laugh. It was very warm and bubbly.

“I love you,” I said.

Tears leaked from the human’s eyes. Did I do something wrong?

But in this human’s eyes, I could do no wrong.

“I love you, too,” the human said.

It was just a single moment of understanding, where each of us could perfectly comprehend the other.

But it was beautiful.