The cat didn’t know herself as Sunny. She didn’t know herself as anything. Names were not a part of her mental makeup.

She lay sprawled on the fine weave of the living room carpet, her eyes closed in a dozing half-sleep. This was not unusual. For about eighteen hours each day you could find her in various locations in the house, in varying stages of rest. She knew only two gods, and their names were Sleep and Food.

She shared the house with two humans. Master was a middle-aged human male whose hair was thinning out on the top of his head like cat suffering from mange. Mistress was responsible for feeding the cat. Master and mistress were more along the lines of hired staff, it was the cat that owned the house. She knew it, they knew it, everyone knew it.

It was an easy life. Food was reverently served to her in small plastic bowels. She could sleep in any part of the house except the bedrooms and master’s office (he spent a good deal of time in there). In the times when she desired affection, master and mistress were ever ready with a scratch, pat, or rub.

***

One evening, when the sun had retracted its gaze completely from indoors and the cat needed to curl up tightly to stay warm, she saw master pacing his office. She walked in to investigate. On his face she saw an expression she could dimly identify as worry.

It struck her as strange that he was not immediately throwing her out of his office. He seemed distracted.

He walked over to the door, shut it, then walk back to a stack of filing cabinets from which he pulled a manila folder. He then walked back to his desk where a large chrome machine sat beside the computer. The cat watched as master turned the machine on and, one by one, fed the contents of the manila folder into the machine’s gaping maw. What emerged at the other end was thin strips of shredded paper.

After all the papers had been shredded, master turned the machine off, shut down the computer, gave the cat a scratch, turned off the lights, and exited the office.

As he had bent down, the cat had seen beads of sweat on his brow.

***

The next few days passed in a dreamy, somnolent blur of sleep, eating, and small tours of the house that were the cat’s daily exercise regime. She saw master and mistress making a lot of phone calls. Some sounded pleasant, others sounded tense.

I don’t understand it, she thought during her brief moments of lucidity. What are those snakelike things they hold to their ears? Are they alive? Master and mistress talk to them, so they must be. And with a sudden surge of jealousy. I don’t get talked to that much.

***

A day came when guests arrived at the cat’s domain…a human male and female with two small children. The adult humans sat down for a meal while the children played in a corner. The cat made a point of not joining them.

From the table drifted snatches of conversation.

“…Stewart says you’re the primary trustee, Bill. Are you absolutely sure that you haven’t misplaced those files?

The cat saw master nod his head, avoiding his guest’s gaze.

The meal was finished but the conversation continued well into the night. Some time into it the bored children approached the cat, and she grudgingly allowed herself to be petted and fondled and picked up, enduring their attentions like a businessman enduring a dull conference. She was glad when the guests left, and master and mistress seemed to feel the same way.

***

Some time near midnight, the cat was awoken by a crashing sound coming from the kitchen. With instinctive stealth no amount of pampering could rob her of, she padded into the kitchen to investigate. She saw mistress hunched over the kitchen sink, a glass filled with water in her shaking hand. Beside the sink was a small bottle with meaningless markings on it: VALIUM.

The cat walked up and began rubbing herself against mistress’s leg. Mistress spun, gave an unearthly shriek and dropped the glass. It shattered like a gunshot. The cat to fled under the table, wide-eyed with shock.

Mistress was gasping and clutching her chest. “Oh…Sunny, I didn’t mean to scare you…I just…Christ…” She was mumbling and slurring her words like she normally never did. “Come here, puss. I’m….sorry…”

The cat was doubtful, but finally allowed herself to coaxed out from under the table for a scratch from mistress. They both went to bed, and by the next morning the cat had no recollection of the previous night’s events.

***

The cat dreamed her way through the days. Summer was shortening and the leaves were browning and dying on the trees. Master and mistress paid a schoolboy to rake their lawn every couple of weeks. Meanwhile, the cat was noticing disconcerting changes in her property’s caretakers. Mistress was becoming distant and vague. Master’s temper was growing shorter and shorter and the cat often found him bent over his desk, yelling at the snake-thing held to his ear.

Did it do something to upset you? the cat wondered. Good. Perhaps you’ll start spending time with me instead.

But by and large, life continued to be good, life continued to be pleasant. The water kept flowing and the sun kept shining and food was served in never-ending platefuls. The cat was beginning to find it difficult to curl up in a ball, her belly kept getting in the way as it hadn’t before.

Then…

***

The cat watched through the window as a car pulled up on master and mistress’s driveway. Out of it came the man that had eaten dinner at the cat’s house not long ago. He had a ugly, bone-chilling frown and a purposeful, aggressive walk. The cat decided to stay out of his way.

He pounded on the door, and master opened it. Angry words were spoken. The man was red in the face. Mistress was standing behind master and seemed on the verge of fainting. Master gave a cool, calculated answer that seemed to infuriate the red-faced man. More hot words, and then the man’s balled fist collided with master’s jaw.

Mistress screamed. The cat got one look at master, down on his knees, red fluid pouring from his chin, and then ran away. She skipped over the sofa and hid under the coffee table, ears flat against her head like a skullcap and her tail in bushy bristles.

The cat stayed there a long time, not daring to move. She heard a siren noise in the distance that came closer and closer. She wondered what was happening, and whether it would stop her from having regular naps. Did it have anything to do with the snake creatures? Or the monster that had eaten master’s papers?

It will be fine. Master and mistress will take care of it, she thought as the sirens came closer and closer…closer and closer.

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