The woman squinted through the darkness.<\/p>\n
Moonlight spilled across the bedroom floor.<\/p>\n
For a moment\u2014<\/p>\n
she had no idea what was happening.<\/p>\n
Then\u2014<\/p>\n
THWACK!<\/p>\n
Another furry paw landed squarely on her cheek.<\/p>\n
“Ow!”<\/p>\n
The brown tabby immediately answered with an outrageously loud\u2014<\/p>\n
“MROWWWW!”<\/p>\n
The woman groaned and pulled the blanket over her head.<\/p>\n
Big mistake.<\/p>\n
The cat pounced.<\/p>\n
Tiny paws scrambled across the blanket.<\/p>\n
A determined tail flicked back and forth.<\/p>\n
Then\u2014<\/p>\n
THWACK!<\/p>\n
Right through the blanket.<\/p>\n
The woman sat upright.<\/p>\n
Hair a mess.<\/p>\n
Eyes half closed.<\/p>\n
Patience completely gone.<\/p>\n
“What do you want?!”<\/p>\n
The cat froze.<\/p>\n
Sat down.<\/p>\n
And stared.<\/p>\n
Unblinking.<\/p>\n
Silent.<\/p>\n
Judgmental.<\/p>\n
The room became strangely quiet.<\/p>\n
The woman stared back.<\/p>\n
The cat stared harder.<\/p>\n
Neither moved.<\/p>\n
Then the tabby suddenly turned around and marched toward the bedroom door.<\/p>\n
A few steps later\u2014<\/p>\n
it stopped.<\/p>\n
Looked back.<\/p>\n
“Mrrrow.”<\/p>\n
The woman blinked.<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
The cat waited.<\/p>\n
“Mrrrow.”<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
The cat narrowed its eyes.<\/p>\n
Then marched back onto the bed.<\/p>\n
THWACK!<\/p>\n
“Okay! Okay!”<\/p>\n
The woman threw the blanket aside and stumbled out of bed.<\/p>\n
The cat instantly trotted toward the hallway.<\/p>\n
Victorious.<\/p>\n
Tail held high.<\/p>\n
Like a tiny furry general leading troops into battle.<\/p>\n
The woman followed.<\/p>\n
Half asleep.<\/p>\n
Barely awake.<\/p>\n
Muttering complaints the entire way.<\/p>\n
The cat led her through the dark house.<\/p>\n
Past the living room.<\/p>\n
Past the kitchen.<\/p>\n
Straight to the back door.<\/p>\n
Then stopped.<\/p>\n
The woman folded her arms.<\/p>\n
“Seriously? You woke me up for this?”<\/p>\n
The cat sat down.<\/p>\n
Waiting.<\/p>\n
Patient.<\/p>\n
Demanding.<\/p>\n
The woman sighed and opened the door.<\/p>\n
The tabby didn’t move.<\/p>\n
Instead\u2014<\/p>\n
it looked outside.<\/p>\n
Then back at her.<\/p>\n
Then outside again.<\/p>\n
Confused, the woman stepped onto the porch.<\/p>\n
Cool night air greeted her.<\/p>\n
Everything seemed normal.<\/p>\n
Until she heard it.<\/p>\n
A faint sound.<\/p>\n
Very faint.<\/p>\n
Almost hidden beneath the wind.<\/p>\n
“Mew.”<\/p>\n
The woman froze.<\/p>\n
Another tiny cry followed.<\/p>\n
“Mew.”<\/p>\n
The tabby immediately sprinted off the porch.<\/p>\n
The woman grabbed a flashlight and followed.<\/p>\n
Together they crossed the yard.<\/p>\n
The cries grew louder.<\/p>\n
Near a bush beside the fence\u2014<\/p>\n
the flashlight beam landed on a tiny orange kitten.<\/p>\n
Covered in dirt.<\/p>\n
Cold.<\/p>\n
Scared.<\/p>\n
Alone.<\/p>\n
The woman gasped.<\/p>\n
The kitten mewed weakly.<\/p>\n
The brown tabby walked straight over and sat beside it.<\/p>\n
As if saying:<\/p>\n
Finally. You found it.<\/em><\/p>\n The woman carefully picked up the trembling kitten.<\/p>\n The tiny animal instantly curled against her chest.<\/p>\n Safe.<\/p>\n Warm.<\/p>\n The tabby rubbed proudly against her leg.<\/p>\n The woman looked down at her furry midnight attacker.<\/p>\n Realization spread across her face.<\/p>\n “You weren’t being annoying.”<\/p>\n The cat blinked.<\/p>\n Slowly.<\/p>\n Confidently.<\/p>\n The universal feline expression for:<\/p>\n Obviously.<\/em><\/p>\n The woman laughed despite herself.<\/p>\n Then gently scratched behind the tabby’s ears.<\/p>\n “Good job.”<\/p>\n The cat purred loudly.<\/p>\n Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n A few minutes later\u2014<\/p>\n the woman returned inside carrying the rescued kitten.<\/p>\n The tabby followed proudly behind.<\/p>\n Tail held high.<\/p>\n King of the house.<\/p>\n Hero of the night.<\/p>\n And although the woman lost several hours of sleep\u2014<\/p>\n she couldn’t help smiling.<\/p>\n Because sometimes\u2014<\/p>\n the most irritating alarm clock in the world…<\/p>\n is also the one that saves a life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The woman squinted through the darkness. Moonlight spilled across the bedroom floor. For a moment\u2014 she had no idea what was happening. Then\u2014 THWACK! Another furry paw landed squarely on her cheek. “Ow!” The brown tabby immediately answered with an outrageously loud\u2014 “MROWWWW!” The woman groaned and pulled the blanket over her head. Big mistake. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}