• Em walked across the street slowly, no cars came down this road at night, it was too dark, no street lamps, kids broke them years ago. Padding quietly on the concrete Em’s eyes glowed brightly in the dark, her fur was an odd mix of color, but that didn’t matter at night.


    Looking in one of the garbage cans Em found her friend Amb, sleeping soundly at the bottom of the can in some garbage. One good thing about cats was that they could pretty much sleep anywhere, nothing really bothered them much, save water, but Em could handle that easy.


    “Amb,” Em hissed into the can sternly. The cat at the bottom of the can stirred slightly before opening two bright eyes to look at Em, they had a sheepish smile to them.


    “Hey Em, how was roaming?” Amb asked jumping out of the can. Em hissed slightly. “Not good then?” She questioned looking at Em.


    “Found some more food, but it’s in Wolf’s area,” Em said jumping onto the wall.


    “I found another helpless mother with six kittens,” Amb said walking beneath her.


    “I guess I can fight through Wolf’s area,” Em said with a small hiss.


    “You don’t have to, we can find food elsewhere,” Amb said thinking back to last time. Amb had found a new mother with four new kitten, but they didn’t have any food with them at all. Em had found some fish the previous day in Wolf’s territory and fought her way to get a couple, she had a bad leg for a while after that.


    “Nah, I can handle Wolf,” Em reassured her.


    Wolf was a big cat that got a little out of control, he has an owner but only stays with him sometimes, and he owns the territory around his owners house, which happens to be the better part of the town that usually had better garbage to sift through. And he was mean, with a small mob of other cats with him most of the time you could never get anything that was on their territory, Em was the only cat that ever got food from him and lived, but she never ate it, always giving it away.


    “Are you sure?” Amb questioned looking up at Em.


    “I’m sure,” Em smiled down at Amb with a soft mew.


    The next day Em was gone before Amb woke up, so Amb walked over to where she told Em to meet her with the food, the new family was already there, minus one kitten. The mother explained that it passed in the night and Amb nudged the cat lovingly and knowingly, it was hard to keep kittens alive, especially without food.


    “Whose that?” The cat questioned looking at an approaching cat. Some kids laughed on the other side of the park as a cat limped towards them shakily.


    “Em!” Amb yelled excitedly and ran out to meet her friend. Em smiled around the three fish in her mouth, there was blood above her right eye, and her back leg was bloody and battered, she’d definitely been through hell. Even her grey orange fur was spattered with blood.


    “Got the food for you,” Em said after dropping the food in front of the mother and her kittens.


    The cat looked at Em with a little shock before nuzzling her delicately.


    “Thank you,” the cat said before she started to feed her kittens.


    Em and Amb looked at the scene with soft smiles, it was always a nice thing to watch, a mother caring for her kids.


    “Where to next?” Em asked Amb as they walked away.


    “I was thinking the south side of town,” Amb said swaying her tail back and forth.