Hello Tom, I’ve been missing you.
Hello Fraidy Kat. I would have been here sooner but I’ve been talking to a bobcat that just moved into the neighborhood.
What kind of cat?
A bobcat, Fraidy, is a type of cat that lives in The Wild. He’s a little bit bigger than me, and he has a short tail that looks like it was cut off.
Did he come here to live with a human?
Well, that’s the problem. He didn’t want to come here, and humans would try to trap him and maybe kill him if they see him, but he’s small enough to hide during the day. Some of his relatives, though, are too big to hide. Do you know what a cougar is? He’s a big cat that is about as big as a human. Humans are afraid of him, and some people even hate him. If anyone sees him they call a lot of other humans and hunt him down.
Why did those cats come here if humans want to hurt them?
Try to understand now, Fraidy. Most animals don’t live in houses like you do. Most animals live in The Wild. It’s a place with lots of trees, and animals have been living there for a long, long time. It’s different from The City because it doesn’t have a lot of houses and humans.
Many kinds of animals live there. Some animals eat the trees and plants, then other animals eat them. The humans don’t want to live with the ones that eat other animals, so when they come into The City they have very little chance of surviving for long.
But, I still don’t understand Tom! Can’t they just stay in The Wild and let the humans live in The City?
Oh, they would if they could. But they’re losing their homes. Have you ever thought, Fraidy Kat, about what it would be like to not have a home?
Doesn’t everyone have a home?
The old cats say that long ago there were other humans who lived here and they shared everything with the plants and the animals. Then another kind of human came and they cut down trees and said that they were the only ones who had a right to be there. The humans had terrible weapons and big machines that destroyed the animals’ homes, and now there is no place for them to go. Some of The Wild still exists, but other animals already live there so there isn’t room for any more to move in.
So the animals without a home started moving into The City. They have learned that they can get food where humans live, just like me. I like to eat mice, but there are so many cats in my colony that we also eat a lot of what the humans throw away. But the big cats, the cougars, need more food. They have to roam all over The City and before too long they get seen and hunted down.
That’s terrible! Those poor cats! Don’t humans know that those animals have no place else to go?
Most humans are too selfish and greedy even to think of us, except that we get in their way. They think they can kill and destroy anything that is in their territory.
There are some humans, though, who say they want to be good and share our world in peace with us. But then they shove us out of our homes anyway.
Why would they do that?
Well, first of all Fraidy, have I ever told you about the humans called The Greens?
I’ve never seen a green human.
No, no… they call themselves The Greens because they care about The Wild and the green plants and the animals. They want humans to stop destroying the rest of us, and it’s very difficult because humans don’t want to change.
But here’s what is so upsetting about The Greens: a lot of them don’t want to live where other humans are, in The City. They say that they want to be out where there are lots of trees and rivers.
Is that bad?
Think about it, Fraidy Kat. When humans come they build roads and bring in cars, which scare the animals.
I ran out once when the door was open but when I was outside I got scared of all the cars.
But it’s not just cars that hurt us, they also build fences so the deers can’t eat trees, even though the deers were here first. They make lots of noise with their machines that cut down trees, and loud things with two wheels that a human rides on really fast and tears up the land just for fun. But worst of all, they take away the places where the big cats and the wild dogs have always hunted.
So some of these Green people think that they are doing a lot of good for all the other creatures, but really they are being very selfish. They just want to live in a place that is pleasant for them. Also, some of them go away and come back each day, just like your human does, and they come and go in those big smelly cars.
Even though The Greens are proud of themselves and say that they are better than the Republicans, they create as much bad as good. Most humans do whatever they want even though they claim that they are doing the right thing.
Oh, Tom! This is all so sad. I’m going back under the bed.
Goodnight Fraidy Kat.
