Kitten Tales
It’s a minor version of the famed “eye of the storm”. The sky directly above me is… well, probably a light gray. I can’t quite tell, because we’re in a prolonged twilight. In every direction, coming and going, are dark and forboding rain clouds. There was a heavy downpour just an hour ago, and there will be a heavy downpour in a hour or so.
There is an eerie silence. Traffic is logging past me, off to Thanksgiving Weekend. It’s quite tranquil, and the only possible moment I’m going to be walking.
I veered into an area without much traffic, and into a bus stop. Somebody had abandoned an umbrella. I inspect it to see if is in working order.  It was not. I hear a loud, shrill “Meerow”, and look down to see. Only a kitten can be as shrill as this. I had destroyed the kitten’s refuge, under an umbrella, under the roof of this bus stop where the rain does not disturb.
The kitten looked young enought that it may still be nursing from its mom. It was possible it was lost in a quick shuffle and get-away the mom had to pull in an emergency. If not, it was just barely past this stage. At any rate, the kitten was as lost as could be.
I walked on. The kitten followed me, galloping as quickly as it could, shouting its shrill “Mee-row!” I was its best chance at the moment, nevermind I was not going to adopt a stray kitten. Even if I wanted to, I’m not in a position to care for a pet kitten.
The kitten kept with me for about five blocks, a pretty good endurance. At the sixth block, I looked back to see the kitten had stopped, and was now mee-rowing to somebody’s yard dog — a smallish muttish non-threatening creature. The kitten had found its new best chance, as pathetic a chance as it may be.
If anybody is missing a kitten, and this is that kitten, I can’t help you. It is the proverbial needle in a hay-stack. The kitten is lost to the wilderness.