Fight!

Somewhere after 3:00 AM, I came straight up out of my sleep.  Outside my house, in the back, I heard yowling and screeching.

My cat!

My cat and something else.

I leapt to my feet, scrambled to find my robe, and ran to the back door.  Upon opening the door, the yowling amplified.

“Splash!” I yelled to my cat.

The screaming intensified, quadruplified.  My cat and something else began clashing wholesale in the darkness just beyond my deck.

I suspected a fox.

I turned on the outside light.  Light washed across my deck.  Chairs appeared from darkness.  “Splash!”

The unseen fight intensified.

With the door open, I ran back to the utility room to grab a pair of shoes.  When I returned to the back door, Splash was there.   Quiet had returned to the night.

“Come on in, Buddy.”

Splash stared at me.

“Come on.”

After a few moments, Splash slowly walked inside, but he would not allow me to get close.  He remained firmly set in fight mode.

I went back to bed.

At first light this morning, I went out back to investigate.  I found a trail of fur tufts down the hill and leading up to the deck.

My cat seemed uninjured and wanted back out.

I am still unsure of the other combatant.  I am really thinking fox.

My cat is now out there, waiting for a return.

—Mitchell Hegman