Butters

Fresh air and a ball of yarn, Butters, the tabby cat enjoyed his time atop his kitty tower. His fur was pristine and yellow-orange, vibrant and luxurious. The room was filled with toys he could paw at and objects to jump on. He couldn’t be happier.

Butters leapt from his tower to the floor and strutted across the bakery. Pawprints were left in his steps from the flour on the floor. He brushed against some indistinct, human legs to show affection. It was his way.

Into the kitchen Butters went, where a bowl of fresh milk sat, just for him. His tongue dipped into the bowl, but Butters could taste no milk.

“Butters…” a searching voice was heard. He peered up, but there was nothing but pastry lining the prep table. Again, he attempted to drink.

“Butters?” the voice was somewhat concerned, but also sounded irritated. Butters did his best to search for the source this time, but now the bakery was empty of humans.

“Butters!” this time, the voice woke him up. He was not in a bakery, but instead on the back stoop of a small home.

“Was this you?” his ‘owner’ screamed, holding up a pee-soaked shirt. Butters didn’t understand, but hadn’t been allowed in the house in months. There was no way he could have soiled the angry man’s clothes. “Of course it was. That’s why you stay out here. You’re a BAD CAT!”

The angry man tapped Butters off the stoop with his foot. “Don’t even try to get in the house!” was the last word before the man slammed the metal door loudly, surely waking the neighbors this late at night.

In the rotted backyard of the house, with a barbed-wire fence, Butters found a corner where he could at least have some shelter with discarded wood and beer cans. He looked at his fur, which he dreamt was so clean, but saw missing and muddy patches only.

Through the rubble he huddled beneath, Butters viewed a sky vivid with all the universe. It looked like a reflection to him. A constellation stuck out and drew his attention. The stars formed a shape he knew. Pointed ears and fur patterns convinced Butters that he was looking at a cat, much like himself.

Butters didn’t know that the stars were there looking back at him. Cosmic powers had viewed the plight of the kitty and his mistreatment. The ancient being above became engrossed with compassion and empathy. It would come to Butters’ aid.

Sleep was disrupted by the metal door slamming against the outside wall of the house. Butters cowered within the rubble, hoping to avoid his abuser.

“Butters?.... Butters??....Butters!!”

Cans and wood exploded outward from a corner of the yard. Butters no longer had an owner. The angry man was the one who would cower from that moment on.

A giant beast of a bipedal tabby cat approached the stoop, cracking his knuckles, ready to get to business, as the man had no confusion about who was peeing in his pants.