I was at my wits end as we pulled up to the pound. The howling dogs and screeching cats could be heard from blocks away. The man picked me up and hauled me inside. He stopped at the front desk when a man asked who I was.

“Oh this ‘ittle one is from down on Willow Lane… you know that big white house on the corner? It burned down and the owners were killed. We found her there and brought her here.”

The man took me down a long hallway and into the dog kennel part. I noticed a few of them growling at the man as he passed by. Or perhaps they were growling at me. I couldn’t tell, but soon we reached the cat section. The man opened a cell and sat me down inside and shut the door. He bent down and looked at me through the bars.

“Poor kitty. I wish I could take you home, but the missus wouldn’t allow me to bring home any kits. You don’t belong in this crummy ‘ol place. I hope that another wealthy family comes to get you soon.”

That wasn’t what I wanted at all, but I rubbed my back against the man’s fingers on the bar. He pointed to where my food and water was and then left. I looked around my pen. It was much smaller than what I was accustomed to, but it’s what I wanted. It was humble and secure, and that’s all I needed. I looked over into the next pen and saw a familiar face looking at me….VERY familiar in fact. I squinted my eyes to see better. Suddenly it clicked.

“Lufkin??? Is that you?!”

“I thought I’d never see you here, Mowizzle.”

It was him!! I ran to the side of my cage closest to him.

“It’s great to see you again…but I have some explaining to do.”

“Wait… Mowizzle, before you say anything. I have to tell you that the other guys are rather…well, miffed at you. They’re on the other side of the kennel, so they haven’t seen you yet. I heard about what happened to your house, and I’m sorry that you lost all those nice things…including your owners. But I also heard about the troubles you were having before the whole fire thing…you know, when we got towed away… my neighbor,”

Lufkin motioned the cell on the other side of him

“told me all about it. He heard it from some of the wealthy cat-friends nearby.”

“Wow…news spreads around London, huh?”

“Around here it does…but I just want to let you know that I am on your side, and that I know you were trying to help us all along. It wasn’t your fault.” I smiled.

“But,” he began,

“I don’t think this is the last time you’ll have to prove your point.”

“What do you mean?” I asked

“Well, at 3:00 they let all the cats out together to go get some exercise…and the rest of the gang will be around.”

“Oh…well that’s great. I hope they’ll just give me time to explain.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let them do anything to ya!”

3:00 rolled around as I sat in my cage anxiously waiting. The man opened my cage first, but I waited to come out of it after Lufkin stepped out. I nearly tumbled over him as I ran behind him as quickly as I could. He led me out towards the Big Pen. I hunkered down as low as I could behind him when I saw the rest of the strays, but they didn’t see me at first.

“Hey Lufkin, didya hear about the new stra…hey…who’s that there behind ya?” Hestia questioned.

Lufkin thought a moment of how he was going to tell them.

“Guys… this is Mowizzle, you remember her…”

“Oh… her, yes we all remember her.”

I looked up and saw Hestia peeking at me.

“Guys, wait…before you jump to conclusions…” Lufkin interrupted.

“What’s this?”, Cherbalt began as he stepped up “ Is our Pampered Princess getting a taste of her own medicine?”

“WAIT, you guys! It’s not what it seems! Mowizzle was defending us whenever this incident happened!“ Lufkin said rather aggravated.

Cherbalt looked at me with a grin of doubt.

“You need to hear the whole story…”

Lufkin drug me up in front of him, despite my struggling protest.

“Ooohkay,”

And with that, I told them the whole story. Then when I thought I was through, Lufkin pointed out how I needed to tell them all about the house fire, so I told them that part too.

“We’re glad ya didn’t ditch us on purpose, Mowizzle,” Hestia informed me.

“We didn’t want to be mad at ya… we hoped it was just a rumor.”

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