Hey heeeeeey Goodlooking

The dynamics had changed once again. It was not the first time this had happened, but it was the first time that she feared the consequences. She was too old to do battle all over again. Damnit! She thought, Who could have foreseen this?!?

In an attempt to calm down she put her head in between her legs and started licking at the tuff of hair underneath her belly. It didn’t calm her the way it used to. She was dry down there now. Another sign that she was too damn old for this shit.

Ever since she had moved here, she had been in control. It had been easy, the ones who were here before her were weak, spoiled, and they did not know how to put up a fight. Besides, she thought with contempt, they were men, and men are always weaker. And that little bitch was old even then, unable to hold up her excrements, and with rotten teeth. It had been kitten’s play to overthrow her. Dogs were stupid, in general, and this one was even stupid for a dog.

The first shift of dynamics had occurred when the older one had died. He had been sick for a very long time, but the old woman who cared for them had kept him alive much longer than he himself had wished. He wished to join his friend, who had already been dead when she had arrived, and end his suffering. Humans, she thought with even more vile contempt, were obsessed with prolonging the inevitable. It didn’t even occur to her that maybe she was doing the same thing by refusing to give up her domincance.

She had been left with the neutered man, one who never bothered her, was even pleasant to deal with, and she had been the undisputed queen of the domain. Sure, he was fatter and more cuddly and people petted him more, but she could not care less. She was fed first, she occupied the best place in the bed, she held court from atop the nicest chair. She ruled her little kingdom, and every cat in the neighbourhood knew it too. They feared her. Ah, I was something then, she thought, a fierce warrior, no one messed with me!

Then a new one had come. Female. Small. Underfed. Not much of an opponent it had seemed. She had been kind to this pitiable newcomer. But soon she grew large on the ample amounts of food that were bestowed upon her. And she was not content to be just a subject, she wanted to reign. Ferocious battles were fought, but she had been stronger. She had kept the man and the dog at bay, tricked the human into thinking that the newcomer was the aggressor. She had fought bravely and she had fought well, and in the end she had been victorious. Her enemy succumbed and bowed down before her.

It had not brought her peace. She had to be constantly on alert for new attempts of the treacherous grey to overthrow her. But she had been smarter. She had lost her mating partner to this younger opponent, but in the end he had not gone along with the plot to battle her together. He loved her, he had said, ha! She scorned his love. She had long ago lost the ability to carry kittens within her. Only one live one had been born out of her uterus, and even that one had only lived a day. She sometimes wondered what her life would have been, if she had been given the chance to be a mother. But it was of no matter anymore now. She was a queen, not a mother. And her throne was under siege once more.

The dynamics had shifted once more when the red man died. He had not gotten out of the way of one of those infernal human machines fast enough. She had not mourned over him, but she had felt sorry for him. She hoped he had not suffered needlessly. Her human and those of the family, had grieved for him. He had been their favourite and she knew it, although she did not resent them for it.

For the longest time after that, they had been 3: she, the grey and the dog, whose life dragged on and on in an endless spray of red shit and burning piss. No cat would want to live like that, a cat would want to end in dignity. The dog seemed to cherish every befouled day she got. Dogs are stupid, she thought for Sheba knows what time. The grey had attempted to ingratiate herself more to the humans of the household. The old woman continued to prefer her, which she was secretly pleased with even though she would never admit it. The younger human female paid little attention to either of them. The young male who had once been her human, in the place where she had come from, disliked the violent gray, and would pet only her, which was good. The other young male treated all creatures with alike violence and anger. The grey attempted to play nice, but she could not keep it up. She would jump on laps and pur, but after a while her nerves would give out and she’d hiss, scratch and bite. The young male took to calling her ther Serpent Grey.

The grey simply didn’t like being petted. But she could enjoy a rough human hand messing up her fur. And she knew it ingratiated her. She knew it would keep her number one.

But now, in the twilight of her life, when she could feel her strength waning, when she was exhausted after every battle, when she stayed in more and more, and slept most of the time, now that the meat on her bones, once supple, had become more rigid, in short, now that she was nearing her life’s end, an unpleasant surprise was sprung upon her.

Oh cruel fate! She hissed and in her fury tore a thread out of the carpet, what vile trick you have played on me! A new inhabitant had arrived. Small and underfed, like the grey had been, but she knew that did not make her harmless. She had been shocked to discover the newcomer, but she had not taken action yet. She kept aloof, and stayed watchful. The grey had not made any contact yet either. But she must be smelling her chance! She thought. Even in my old age, I can keep the grey under, she is not so young anymore herself by now. But a new one… If they join forces, I am doomed.

So she watched and she watched. She soon became convinced that the black one by herself was no big threat. She was quiet, withdrawn and apparantly uninterested in power. She was soon popular with the humans as she enjoyed being petted and would spend hours in their laps, purring away. The grey one approached her once, but het volatile personality caused her to grow annoyed with the timid thing, and she hissed at her. The black one now stayed away in fear. She saw her chance to approach her and forge an alliance.

With forced kindness, she endeared herself to the little knocked up black, and thus made sure she would not ally herself with her enemies. But a strange thing occurred: the more she acted the part of loving older one, the more she felt herself become one. The many years of maternal love she had hidden inside herself, and the grief over her lost children, came pouring out, and she lavished it all onto this young ditzy cat.

Weeks passed and the black one gave birth to 3 healthy kittens. She became like a beningn grandmother, caring for both the black one and her litter. She should have seen that the grey one became more and more deranged, more scared … But she didn’t see it, familial bliss had made her careless. She would later come to understand that the price for being a great ruler, was loneliness, but by then it was too late.

Who knows what possessed the grey to do what she did. Perhaps, in her weakening mental state, she believed she, the black and the kittens would form an army against her. Perhaps she was simply jealous of them. Or perhaps she was just a mean old thing. She always assumed it was all of the above. Like all her foul plots, it was well thought out. The kittens were only a week old, and the caretaker man, who came when they were sick or injured, came to check on the black. She had sat herself on her high chair and supervised his investigations, growling in a warning tone whenever he seemed to be a tad rough.

Only then had she noticed the absence of the grey… A terrible feeling of foreboding befell her, and she rushed away off her chair and into the front room, where the litter was. The grey was towering over them, her ears flat against her head, all her fur was standing upright, and her eyes blazed with bloody violence. The spotted kitten was beyond saving, its head torn off. But the other two were still alive, she had not been able to turn against the terriffied little ones yet. She felt deep grief and terrible rage awaken in her chest. She knew her fur was just as frightening as the grey’s. She lurched at her. The old human made an ‘owowowowowow’ sound, which she always made when upset, but she barely heard it anymore. This was the battle to end all battles…

She lay there, in the dark, surrounded by the black and the two remaining kittens. Her old human and the nicer young male stood above her, looking at her with pity and worry. It no longer mattered. The grey would live, but she would never again be able to hurt those she loved. And she wouldn’t win any kitty shows any time soon either! She thought with malevolent glee and then had a coughing fit, which made more blood trickle into her throat. It would not be long now. It was alright. She was surrounded by love, for the first time in her life, and she was able to give love back, for the first time in her life. And, most importantly, she died as she had lived: as a Queen.