The Adventures of Button (17 page)

The small kitten was just beginning to climb Iggy’s leg when Buttons reappeared, pleasure clearly written on her features.

“Come on,” she said, “I know where to put them where they’re safe, and you . . .” She turned to the mother cat and said, “I don’t know your name.”

The cat looked enquiring, and answered with hesitancy, “All creatures hereabout simply call me Mommy Kitty.”

Iggy broke in with “Mommy Kitty. I like that. Well, Mommy Kitty, what shall we do?”

Iggy looked at Buttons and then back to Mommy Kitty, whose mind was whirling with all of the action going on about her. She was young for all the pregnancies she had experienced. She was not accustomed to three such creatures as these facing her. As her strength failed slowly, she would let matters take their course. These three would know in time.

She started to say, “Well, I don’t . . .” when Buttons reached for the kitten at Iggy’s leg. She opened her mouth and was about to try and pick the kitten up when she was stopped short by the hissing spit of Mommy Kitty whose back was arched as she sidled toward the black dog.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Her claws were fully displayed as she approached Iggy and Buttons.

Buttons heaved a sigh. Females could be such a problem, she thought. She hurried to answer before Mommy Kitty decided to take matters into her own hands, well, claws, that is.

“Look, I’ve got just the place for you. It’s right next door. The older couple.” She looked to Sally and Iggy for support.

Sally caught on quickly as usual, and Iggy sat to scratch his head in perplexity. Then, he, too smiled, and jumped up, upsetting the kitten, whose mewing became urgent as it flopped on its back. Mommy Kitty moved swiftly to pick up the kitten deftly in her mouth and carefully deposit it with the other three. Then, she turned back to the two dogs and the squirrel, all of whom appeared to be smiling.

“OK,” she said, “just what do you have in mind?”

Sally answered for all of them. “It’s the old couple next door. They have a box on their back porch, under cover, and it’s always fixed up, just like when before their cat died. Right?”

She turned to Buttons for agreement, and it was Iggy who answered. “Yeah, boy, did they ever spoil that cat. Too fat to even chase me.”

Buttons looked directly at Mommy Kitty. “Look,” she said, “it’s just perfect for you. Put your kittens there and they’ll always be taken care of. Just you wait and see.”

Mommy Kitty was not about to take such a drastic move, without due consideration, but the three were persuasive, and she was hungry. Without food, she could not continue to nurse the four who were always whimpering in their sleep for more, or nudging her for more milk when she didn’t have any. She really had no choice, and finally went along with them.

It was some move. Each insisted on carrying one of the kittens. Iggy could pick one up in his arms because of his clever paws shaped like hands as they were, but then he didn’t know what to do after that, sort of sitting there with a dumb look of pleasure on his face. Sally had a soft mouth and gently picked one up behind the ears just as she was supposed to. She disappeared, making Mommy Kitty very uncomfortable. As she watched Buttons’s attempt, she almost had to laugh because the Scottie would open her mouth as far as she could to pick up one of the kittens, but her long fangs prevented her from gripping the kitten carefully. In the end, it was Sally and Mommy Kitty who accomplished the move with the moral support of the other two.

Iggy, Sally, and Buttons carefully watched from cover as Mommy Kitty and her kittens were discovered by the old inhabitants of the house. The reception was as warm as the three could have hoped for, and Iggy and Sally were congratulating one another when they noticed that Buttons was absent. Sally looked at Iggy, shook her head in a worried fashion, and then left, tracking her friend quite easily, although she had an idea where to look.

As she had anticipated, Sally found Buttons digging away at Mommy Kitty’s old den. With a muffled woof, Buttons backed out as the hole collapsed. Sally watched her friend sit in front of the old den for a second, her only comment being “Buried your guilt, eh?”

Buttons walked past her best friend, her voice muffled as she moved away.

“I don’t know. Something was wrong back there. I don’t like it.”

Buttons visibly shuddered as the three moved into the Great Field. Sally dropped her head but said nothing. Iggy bounced on ahead, totally oblivious to the two dogs’ actions. He would simply await as events occurred, doing his best to help, but he was usually in the way.

As the days, passed Mommy Kitty was to be seen once again in the field. On such occasions, there would be no male accompanying her. She moved slowly, her normal lithe actions gone. With her head down, she seldom paid much attention to the other creatures. Even the small ones paid no attention to her actions. She no longer posed a threat to them.

Then she was no longer to be seen at all.

Buttons was sunning herself, squirming slowly in the dust of the afternoon. The sun would be down before long, and then the nice heat of the ground would rapidly dissipate. She looked up as Sally slowly approached. Iggy followed behind, his eyes large and questioning.

Buttons rapidly rose and shook the dust off. Something was wrong, very wrong. Saying nothing, she simply waited for Sally to speak.

Sally took a deep breath, her eyes sad. She sighed once again, glancing once in the direction of Iggy who could only droop.

“She wants you. Now. You better hurry.”

“Wa . . . wa . . . Who wants me?” Buttons was increasingly confused by the brief words and the behavior of her best friend.

“Mommy Kitty, of course. She’s at her old den. Better hurry. Iggy and I’ll stay here.”

Buttons gulped and would have asked for more information, but Sally only shook her head and pointed to the fence.

It was but a few seconds for Buttons to scramble under the fence and make her way to the old fence which leaned to one side. Mommy Kitty was there, holding herself upright by leaning in turn against the post.

The cat was gaunt, her muzzle now grey, patches of hair missing. Her eyes were large in her narrow features, but they missed nothing as Buttons slowly approached.

Buttons gulped once again, her throat tight. Her words sounded small and distant in the depths of the garden. “What is it, Mommy Kitty? You sent for me?”

Mommy Kitty’s gaze never left the eyes of Buttons as she replied softly. “Yes. I need you to do me a favor.”

She coughed, a small dot of frothy fluid appearing at the corner of her mouth.

She nodded toward the embankment behind her. “I can’t do it by myself.”

Her voice dropped as she fought the cough trying to escape. She fought the constricting band around her chest, trying her best to catch enough air to speak once again. Her sides heaved several times before her gaze returned to Buttons, who was staring in wonder at the ground behind Mommy Kitty.

“You have to do it. You must. Dig.”

Mommy Kitty slumped to the ground, all of her strength now needed to maintain her attention on the small black dog who had stepped back.

Buttons took a step backwards. “I can’t,” she said. “I can’t.”

“You must.” Mommy Kitty spoke harshly though her voice was low. “Only you can do it.”

Buttons would have turned and run, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t evade the eyes of Mommy Kitty. She could not say no. She could only blink, remembering the day she first had dug in that embankment.

Then, taking a deep breath, she did what she had to do. Her sides ached. Her back hurt. She had a hard time even seeing the ground before her. But she dug. Dug as only she could.

Soon, a large hole in the side of the embankment loomed before the two. It was deep as it narrowed. When she was finished, she backed out and waited for Mommy Kitty to speak.

“You will return after dark. You know what to do. You’ve done it before.”

A racking cough shook Mommy Kitty, and blood appeared in the spittle on her thin lips.

Buttons couldn’t help it. Before she could stop herself, she spoke “But the kittens. What about them?”

Mommy Kitty’s eyes glittered in the growing darkness as she gasped and then whispered, “Dead. I buried them in the field where you will never find them. Dead.” She swallowed convulsively. “All dead.”

She slowly moved toward the hole, and standing there, looked down on the small black dog. “You will go now. Return in one hour.” With that, Mommy Kitty disappeared into the blackness of the hole. Mommy Kitty looked back briefly, only eyes visible, and then they, too, closed.

Buttons did as she was ordered by the cat, saying nothing, but looking back time after time. She hurt. Down deep. And, she knew the hurt would be there a very long time. There was no time for regrets. Being what she was, she accepted it. Never again would she be quite the same. Buttons was Buttons. She straightened her back and moved back to the field.

Buttons sat outside the fence. Iggy and Sally lay nearby, but neither approached her. Buttons finally stood and slowly approached the fence. She disappeared rapidly, moving toward the hole which was black against even the night.

She hesitated. How desperately she wanted to run. Run forever. Run and run and run. Run until she could remember nothing. But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Her head dipped once, but resolutely she moved to the side of the hole and quickly dug one more time.

There was no sound as the hole collapsed, the dirt silently sliding down toward the green of the garden’s ivy. A few bits of dirt stopped rolling against Buttons’s forepaws, but she didn’t see them as she turned away.

Followed by Iggy, Buttons made her way into the field. There, she made her way to a small mound where she sat in silence for several seconds. Sally was nowhere to be seen as Buttons raised her nose to the darkening sky.

A Scottie dog’s howl began low in their throat and emerged as a wavering low moan. It was not a loud sound, but carried well, the sadness and unhappiness tightly bound within it all too apparent.

Buttons’s lament was broken as Sally joined her friend. Then, the two sang their sad song for several minutes, their voices rising and then finally sinking into silence.

Buttons took a deep sigh as Sally said, “I’m sorry.” She was about to go on when the voice of Ssserek rose at their side, startling the two dogs who had been entirely unaware of his approach.

“Your comment was appropriate, as was your action.” He addressed each in turn. “It is never easy to be the unwitting cause of grief or death, but it is part of our world. My kind has lived with it for what seems an eternity, and if my throat could manage such sounds, I, too, would sing as you do. And now that you have sung your grief, let it also be your farewell. Put it behind you.” He swung his head at them, and if they had not moved quickly, they would have been sent tumbling in the dirt.

In a very soft voice, Buttons said, “Thank you, Great Ssserek. Thank you and . . .”

Buttons would have gone on, but Ssserek was looking intently at Sally, who squirmed beneath his unwinking gaze.

“Well, my little one?” He waited.

Sally would have squirmed even more but Buttons was gazing at her, then to Sssserek, and then she realized Iggy was not with them.

“What’s going on? Out with it, Sally. What are you two up to? If you don’t answer me, so help me, I’ll . . .”

The small voice of Iggy came plaintively from the bottom of the hill. “Please, Great Ssserek, please.”

Ssserek relented slightly and nodded into the darkness. “You may.”

There was a scrambling rush as Iggy made his way to Sally’s side. He nodded down the hill and then placed himself so that Sally was between him and Buttons.

Buttons’s voice was becoming harsh. The day had been too much. Her grief was almost drowning her. She curled her lips and was about to snarl when a small figure wavered and staggered slowly up the hill.

Buttons sat with a plop, dumbfounded, muddled, and entirely confused. It was a small cat, none too steady. But, head down, it was not about to quit as it tripped repeatedly. Soon, it stood at Buttons’s side, leaning against her.

“Oooaaarrrrhh,” he crooned as he looked up. Love and affection were there, but Buttons could only sit as she viewed the small cat. The small kitten’s eyes kept crossing as he did his best to convey his pleasure.