Flash Fiction 07 - Cat POV

 Cat POV

The knock on the door seemed tentative, as if whoever was on the other side didn't really want to be acknowledged. The people, a couple who had lived in the house for decades, rushed. They blocked my view, but their greeting to the caller was as enthusiastic as I'd ever heard them grant. They pulled the visitor into the house, and as the woman moved to shut the door I saw.

He was back. The child who had lived here before had returned. He had grown large now, despite the woman's insistence he wasn't being fed properly. I watched his face, anxious to see how he would respond to the new collection of pets. His father took the grown boy's coat. He draped it over the antlers of the deer who stood just to the side of the door.

The grown boy's nose wrinkled as if he smelled something unpleasant. He scanned the home, taking a mental inventory. His eyes widened a bit at each visual stumble. They went to the size of a milk bowl when he saw the grizzly bear cum entertainment center with a television blaring from the ursine belly. Finally, as they led him to the dining table, he noticed me.

"You taxidermized Kitten!" he cried. But he made no move to pet me.