Angel

***KINDRED*** “Meow!” A gray, one-eyed cat cried, as it scooted between Megan’s legs and the half-open doorway. “Oh!” Megan screeched as the fat, old tomcat brushed passed her. “Pirate, you naughty boy! Scaring me like that! Come back before you get into another fight. You’re running out of eyes to lose." With little regard for Megan’s warning, he flew across the busy street. “Silly cat!” she exclaimed, closing the door behind her. Two more cats approached as Megan entered the dimly lit lobby. Rubbing their heads and tails against her fragile legs, each greeted her with a singular call. “Meoooow!” “Meeeeow!” Megan fell quickly to her knees. “Hello, Taffy,” she said to the bright orange tabby, lifting the tiny cat into her arms and laying a kiss atop her head. “How are you Midnight?” she asked of the solid black male that was its mate. Five more cats suddenly appeared, then six, then seven. Black ones, gray ones, striped ones, and calicos. Felines of all different shapes and sizes filled the room. Each was a stray whose survival depended on catching mice, raiding trash cans for food, and sneaking into the brownstone for shelter in bad weather. Other tenants ignored them, but not Megan. To her, the cats were all unique in appearance and personality, and she named them accordingly. In addition to Taffy, Midnight, and Pirate, there was green-eyed Esmerelda, and white-footed Boots. Worm had a very long tail, and Stump had no tail at all. And then there was Angel. Longhaired, with a coat as white and fluffy as the winter’s snow, she owned twinkling blue eyes much like those of Megan’s mother. Angel was, no doubt, her favorite of them all. Megan quickly forgot the bone-chilling rain as she sat cross-legged on the speckled, tiled floor, delighting in the warm fur and soft purrs of these playful creatures. Surely, she and the cats had much in common. Having lost all sense of family while in foster care, Megan too felt like a stray. Gratefully though, the cats chose to accept her as one of their clan, despite her human form. Indeed, she had a comforting kinship with these furry felines, and while an army of feral cats might not have meant much to most folks, to Megan, they meant everything.