Beanty never could remember the circumstances surrounding his birth but everyone seemed certain of its importance.
It was the Hutchins girls that saw him first. Meredith and Rebecca found his mother panting in a dark corner of Ridley’s barn. It was the hottest part of August.
The small dark haired girls knelt quietly in amazement as she began to give birth.
They watched and began to whisper to one another as she licked each one clean. It was then they noticed him. Surrounded by four small squirming rubber bodies, he stood out like a plump purple plum.
He was from the fine county of Wicomico in the state of Maryland, land of blue crabs and blue cats. People still recall seeing a peculiar blue grey cat lying among the heavy green stalks wrestling cicadas.
Beanty loved the sun. He sat for hours under the gently sway of pink cherry blossoms preening his silver tipped coat. For him, home was wherever he laid his head.
Then a great tragedy befell our little hero. This too, he could never exactly recall but no one ever pressed. It was a small offense to forgive.
Beanty woke to find himself locked behind low slung walls of thin sheet metal, tortured by the howls and guttural moans of lost cats, bellies full of fear.
Slowly, he took in the view of his new world from behind metal bars.
He survived on stale crumbs of dried food and stagnant water. He endured the indecent invasions of medical tests, probes and exams but the heart of a hero is strong and as the roots of his resolve burrowed deep into his heart, he plotted his escape.
Surely this was not a hero’s life – communal litter boxes, stand offs against three legged cats and fanatic children with sticky hands.
His one solace was a single spot carved out as his own atop a cat tree covered in dingy beige carpet. It stood near the door leading out of his bleakly lit chamber.
Several times, he bolted through the door in search of freedom. Each time he found himself in a yet smaller room filled with babies locked two or three to a cage. His spirit was nearly broken the first he saw them but it went unnoticed as he was forced to endure cage time as punishment for his actions.
But by the third time, his heart had grown hard and because he feared a punishment greater than being chased on slick floors by heavy soled shoes, Beanty sought a safer way to gain his freedom and realize the life he deserved.
Enjoyed the story? Share it with someone you know.
###
