Hogan's Other Nemesis
by 80sarcades

A happy (belated) Thanksgiving to all! Hopefully everyone had a nice holiday...and good shopping!

This came to me last month when I was working on my last installment of FanFiction Court. Sadly, due to outside events, I've been unable to concentrate on anything other than family and work until now. This is a counterpart to Sgt. Moffitt's wonderful piece 'In the Truck'; writer's block can sometimes be benefical! I'll update the rest this weekend.

Enjoy, and have a wonderful day!

I'm a cat. A cat living with a human.

Admittedly, that sounds like a drawback. Cats by nature are supposed to rule over humans, not the other way around. Then again, I like to lay around a bit too much for that to happen.

So...where should I start? Perhaps my humble beginnings will do. Like the time I nearly downed.

Unlike humans - or dogs, for that matter - we remember almost everything. Well, most of us. My first memory is of leaving a very warm place for a horribly cold one. Specifically, a chilly straw mattress. Not that I knew that at the time, of course. Like any newborn kitten, I blundered around blindly with my brothers and sisters as I tried to find warm milk. For a while, I was happy. I grew up, eventually opened my eyes, and began to explore the world around me. Life, as the saying goes, was good.

Then again, maybe it held a bit of luck for me. Like any kitten, I was naive as to the true workings of fate. I had no idea about the world outside; no idea about what waited beyond my mother's teat and the scratch box. And of how cruel some humans could be.

One day, a rough hand scooped my fur up before dumping me in a bag along with the rest of my brothers and sisters. Oddly enough, I thought it was fun. At that time I was more worried about being warm than filling my small belly. For the next few minutes I was snug and content even as my other siblings panicked. Then I felt the bag falling into nothingness; suddenly, cold water entered my small world. I was terrified.

To this day, I still do not know how I made it out of the bag. Perhaps it was luck. Perhaps the knot came undone and I was able to swim out. Whatever the case, something guided me out of the bag and onto the shore. The chilly wind blew my small body, crying and all, up the embankment and onto a paved road.

In all honesty, I thought I was going to die. I could barely walk or see; nothing was familiar to my dulled senses. As my throat mewed plaintively once again I saw a bright light approaching from my right side. Next, a squealing sound came to my ears followed by the sound of heavy footsteps walking towards me. Suddenly, I felt myself lift into the air before being placed next to something so impossibly warm. The deathly cold wind disappeared; for the first time ever, I began to purr. And then I fell asleep.

And that was how I met my most wonderful human, Major Wolfgang Hochstetter.

To be continued...