Free Highway Cats by Janet Taylor Lisle Page B

“I’ll send out for meatballs and shrimp from the Dumpsters.”
    She dispatched a group of cats who were hanging around staring at the little ones’ odd behavior. They were back with the food inside of an hour, but here was another surprise. The kits refused to eat.
    â€œThis has never happened before,” Shredder said darkly. “They’ve eaten like horses ever since they arrived. What can be wrong?”
    Khalia Koo was impatient. She had no time to waste on the sniffles of babies. A second attack from the parking lot might come at any moment. Who knew what the road crew would think of next? They might decide to invade from the highway or drop in by helicopter. Such things had happened in other forests, she had heard.
    â€œThese kits need fresh air and exercise,” she counseled Shredder. “Get them up and out. They’ll be back to normal soon.”
    Shredder tried. The kittens paid no attention. They didn’t want to climb. They didn’t want to play. They drifted around like tiny zombies. Worst of all, they kept wandering toward the highway, as if they’d forgotten its treacherous ways. Twice Shredder had to run after them and bring them back.
    By afternoon, the old cat was exhausted, and Khalia wasn’t around to help. She was setting up nocturnal patrols in the woods bordering the parking lot in case an attack should come by night.
    â€œCan we be of some assistance?” one of the larger alley cats asked Shredder. “We’d be honored to watch the kits while you have a nap.”
    Shredder sighed and nodded. “Don’t let them go near the highway,” he warned. Then he went behind the stone wall and fell asleep.
    By the time Khalia returned, night had fallen. It was she who discovered that the kits were gone. Their sleeping nest was cold. They hadn’t been in it for some time.
    â€œWe put them to bed!” exclaimed the guilty cat sitters. “They were sound asleep when we last checked! It’s not our fault! They must have snuck off when we weren’t looking!”
    Khalia put out a call for help. There was no reason to think they had gone very far. “We’ll find them,” she assured the frantic highway cats. She contacted a flock of crows to help with aerial scouting.
    An hour later, the kittens had still not been seen.
    Shredder awoke from his nap to widespread panic. Everyone was in the woods, beating bushes and climbing trees.
    â€œCome here, little miracles,” the highway cats mewed. “Stop teasing us. Come back and play.”
    At this moment, Shredder had a terrible thought.
    â€œHas anyone checked the highway?” he asked Khalia.
    â€œThe highway! They surely won’t be there!”
    â€œThey were trying to go all morning,” he informed her. “Something was very wrong with them. In all the weeks they’ve been here, they’ve never acted like this.”
    â€œGo there, quickly.” Khalia pushed him along. “If they’ll come to anyone, it will be you, my love.”
    Â 
    R AIN HAD BEGUN TO fall again when Shredder arrived at the highway. The pavement was slick and greasy-looking. Though the night was dark, a bloodred glow lit the underside of the storm clouds overhead. It came from the blazing city of Potterberg in the distance.
    Shredder crouched along the roadside. Many days had passed since he’d last been here, and the roar of traffic hurt his ears. A double tractor-trailer blasted past his nose. A mail truck went by, then a lopsided furniture van. Chilly winds began to blow. He was about to move farther up the road toward the overpass when a rustle sounded from the weeds nearby. The vicious profile of a large, bristle-hair alley cat rose from a bush.
    â€œSo, id’s Shredder. Haven’t seen you out here for a while.”
    â€œHello, Murray.”
    â€œHello yourself. Whad’s going down?”
    â€œNot much. Seen anything out here