With her belly full, Kitty decided she probably needed to find a safe place to sleep when the sun went down. There was no way she was going to climb back up that tree and go back into the hole where her mother and siblings were.
Grasshoppers were hopping around like mad in the afternoon heat, and she couldn't keep focused. It didn't take long at all for her to figure out the crunchy deliciousness of a grasshopper. She snuck up to them and pounced, often missing as they jumped away, but as she repeated her attempts, she noticed one spread its wings and flew a longer distance.
Looking back at her wings, she realized she might be able to do the same thing. Hunching down, she readied herself, wiggling in excitement. Leaping into the air, she flapped her wings like mad, only to veer off to the side and crash painfully to the ground. Giving herself a shake to get rid of the dust, she tried again, and again, and again.
Laying in the shade of a tree, panting hard, she watched as several small birds were flying from branch to branch, playing like she used to with her sisters. She watched as they moved their wings every which way to get to where they were going. Maybe that's what she needed to do.
A snuffling noise drew her attention, and she saw the large white fluffy creature running at her full tilt. Startled, she dashed up the side of the tree she had been laying near, hoping it couldn't climb. She sat on a branch, watching as the large dog looked up at her, panting hard. It whined at her, then sniffed around the tree where she had been laying, and peed.
She couldn't believe it. That was so gross!
Wrinkling her nose in disgust, she climbed higher to make sure she couldn't smell the offending fluid. The dog ran off after that. Rolling her eyes, she imagined it thought she wouldn't come back just because it had done that.
Settling on a branch she looked down. The height made her a little dizzy, and she was a little scared of big birds finding her. Above her was a branch with a lot of leaves, so maybe the birds won't see her?
Chattering behind her, drew her attention. A hole was nestled between the two branches. She inched closer to it and sniffed. She could smell squirrels, a scent she was very familiar with as it was her mother's favorite food. Inching even closer, she peeked into the hole. There was a lot of nest material. She reached in and grabbed a handful of the leaves and grass, pulling it out. If there were any babies, she intended to eat them, but there weren't.
Sitting there, after digging out all of the nest material, she decided that this would make a wonderful home.
Kitty crawled into the hole and found there was plenty of room. The fact that she was incredibly fortuitous to have found this place was lost on her. She had no idea there weren't squirrel nests in holes all over the place.
"It's my home squirrels, go away!" she puffed up when they chattered at her from the entrance. They didn't leave at her words, so she hissed at them, and they scattered.
Proud of herself, she decided she needed to catch some more of those tasty grasshoppers before she settled down for the night.
Making her way to the ground, she stepped away from the tree, looking around for the white dog. She forgot that it had peed on the ground, until she stepped into a muddy puddle. Freezing, she slowly lifted her hand and stared at it in horror.
EEEEWWWWW!!!!!!!
She shook her hand in horror, shielding her face with her other hand, but the mud was stuck tight. It had dried just enough while she explored her new home, that it would not just fling off. Whenever she got dirty before, her first instinct was to lick herself clean. The thought of that now made her want to gag.
She rushed as best as she could to the water, holding her hand out in disgust. As soon as she arrived, she shoved her hand into the water and quickly washed it off, the whole time holding her head to the side gagging.
After washing the offensive material off her hand, she turned her attention to the grass. Surely there would be something to distract her, and sure enough, she was soon hopping after the bugs in joyful abandon. Chomping on them was so fun as they crunched, she ended up eating far more than she needed to. Her belly was full and she just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep.
Stumbling her way back towards the tree, she rounded one and stopped dead in her tracks. A fluffy creature about the same size as her, sat in her path, just as startled as she.
With a scream, the rabbit turned and fled. She responded with a scream of her own and dashed up the nearest tree. Her heart pounding as she clung to the side of the tree, she was halfway up before she realized that it had screamed and run away, not towards her.
Kitty felt like bashing her face into the side of the tree. She was glad no one had seen her! That would have been too embarrassing! The thought was sobering in light of the past day, and she carefully made her way back down the tree.
The rest of the trip to her new home was uneventful, and she was soon curled up asleep.
The next morning, she stretched lazily, and climbed onto the branch to catch some of the sun's first rays of light. A strange noise drew her attention, to the edge of the trees. She could see figures moving there, in an open place that had no trees.
Craning her head to see better, she saw that the figures were pausing and pounding long things into the ground every so often. She watched them slowly moving down the tree row, pounding the long poles into the ground as they went, for several hours. Once they had moved out of her vision, she climbed down from her branch and headed to investigate.
The poles were made of something she had never seen before. They weren't wood, and had a sharp smell to them. Sneezing, she backed away and headed to the water. She was thirsty and looking forward to more bug hunting.
Sneaking up to the water, she ignored the disobeying tail. Pouncing through the grass, she was horrified to see something pouncing back at her from the water. Spreading her wings did no good, because the monster had wings of its own. With a cry of terror, she rushed back away from the water. Pausing in a think clump of grass, breathing hard, she realized it hadn't followed her.
Kitty slunk back up to the water, and saw the monster gazing back at her. It was just watching her. With a cry of anger, she jumped at it, and ended up over her head in the water.
Spluttering in outrage, she fought the water until she was able to pull herself up onto the bank. Standing there, dripping in the dirt, she realized in dawning horror, that the monster was just herself.
Hanging her head in shame, she shook herself as much as she could, and made her way to the warm rock from the day before. Sitting in the warm rays of the sun, she proceeded to lick away every trace of her mishap. It took most of the morning.
The bugs were in full sway by the time she had rested from her exhausting morning. By late afternoon, she had returned to her warm rock with a full belly.