Screams in the Night

The Hammer did not want in the warm house last night. Left her out. Sprawled on the fresh cut lawn.

At five AM she woke us with her enormous bark. From our neighbour's yard we could hear screaming. A coyote relieving the neighbourhood of one more cat was my guess. Sonja thought it was a duck being torn in the coyote's jaws. I have heard, but not seen a duck in, or around, our yard so she have been right. The killer, in that case, may have been an owl. I have heard one at night through the open window.

"Get your gun," Sonja suggested between the pre-dawn death screams.

If I was living in 69 Mile House I would have. Here in the city, blowing a panel out of your neighbour's cedar fence with a shot gun is frowned upon.

I went to the door and called the Hammer in. She kept on barking at the other side of the fence. At least the screaming had stopped.

Now house and porchlights began to turn on as my woken neighbour's husbands loaded their guns for action and let their dogs into their yards to do some night time barking too. The Hammer does not bark hardly at all and her bark and the screams were heard all the way to the rocky mountains at the edge of town.

My next door neighbour, Pupinder, was the first to ask, "What the fuck is going on over there Beer?"

"Just a cat getting killed next door by the sound of it Poops. Is your cat in the house?"

His youngest daughter, awake now too, heard me say that as she came to the porch to be protected from the neighbourhood ruckus by her whisky loving dad. She started crying and ran back into the house yelling, "Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!"

Poops looked at me like I had just killed his daughter and would soon be dead myself.

"We'll go look over the fence when we've had coffee and its light out," I told him. "It might have been some other cat. If not there might be a collar or some fur your daughter might be interested in burying at the back of your yard."

"Fucking cats," huffed Poops as he made his way back to his porch door. "Next time my daughter wants a pet I am getting her a puppy."