Patricia Fry - Klepto Cat 05 - The Colony Cat Caper by Patricia Fry

He thought for a minute and then said, “In fact, people probably wonder why we want to trap cats. They think we’re odd.” He squinted his eyes and looked more closely at one of the traps. He motioned to Savannah. “Come here. Look at this.”
    She eased up out of the chair and walked over to where Michael knelt. “Most of this tuna is gone. It looks like a cat has been in here. I ’ll just bet someone did let it out.”
    She sighed. “That’s disappointing. How in the world can we help these cats if we have someone working against us?” She walked back over and sat in the chair. “Who could it be?” She leaned forward and said, “An elderly gentleman came one day when we were here. He didn’t seem any too happy about what we were doing. I wonder if he’s sabotaging our efforts.”
    “Water bowls are finally full,” Adam said with a deep sigh. “That took a long time…drip, drip…drip,” he mimicked.
    Michael smiled over at his son. “Okay, I’ll turn off the faucet. Good job, Adam.” He grabbed the bag of kibbles and filled the food bowls, then pushed them into the crawl space. He looked over at the boy, winked, and said, “Want to go scavenging while the cats eat?”
    “Sca-ven-ging?” he questioned.
    “Uh, searching for treasures,” Michael explained.
    “Sure,” he said, his face lighting up.
    Michael smiled over at Savannah. “Wanna come?”
    “I think I’ll just sit and watch the cats. The sun feels good,” she said, looking up at the sky, “whenever it peeks out from behind those clouds.”
    “Okay, see you later.”
    “’Bye Savannah,” Adam said with a wave.
    She waved at them and then settled back to enjoy the intermittent warmth.
    When Michael and Adam returned, Michael stopped in his tracks. He quickly held his hand out to halt his son’s forward motion. “Will you look at that,” Michael whispered. He pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket, snapped a picture, and then grinned down at Adam, who was also smiling. Just then Savannah stirred. She opened her eyes, raised her head, and looked around. “Oh hi,” she said when she spotted Michael and Adam. She sat up, moved her feet from their resting spot on the second chair, and yawned.
    “Awww, you scared them away,” Adam said as he rushed toward Savannah eager to show her his treasures.
    “Scared who?” She sat up straight, looking from side to side.
    Adam grinned. “The cats.”
    “Yeah,” Michael said, “there were cats over here watching you sleep.”
    “There were?” she looked down at the ground around her, behind her.
    He held his phone out for her to see the photo. “Oh my gosh, look how close they were. There’s one of the pretty—dirty—white ones. Wish I could get my hands on that one; give it a bath and a pristine environment. It doesn’ t belong out here.” Her voice cracked. “Oh darn…none of them do. This just makes me so mad…and sad.”
    “It’s okay honey,” Michael said.
    She looked up at him and then over at Adam, who stared back through wide blue eyes.
    “I’m sorry, Adam,” she said. “I jus t don’t like to see cats mistreated—well, none of us do.”
    Adam asked solemnly, “Is somebody hurting them?”
    “No, I don’t think so, but cats shouldn’t have to live under a building. They should be in homes with people to take care of them.”
    Adam thought f or a moment and then said, “Those cats I saw didn’t look sad. Maybe they like camping out.”
    Savannah couldn’t help it; she chuckled. “Camping?” she said. “Yeah, I guess that’s one way to look at it; they’re camping out. Camping is fun, isn’t it Adam?” she said, patting him on the chest. “You know, you sure have a way of making me smile.” She pulled him to her in a hug. “I just love that about you.”
    When she let him go, he stepped back a little. Head down, hands in pockets, he shrugged. “I guess I just don ’t have anything to be sad about,” he said.
    Savannah glanced up at Michael