Pasha jumped onto the workbench, and from there to his space in a cluttered shelf above it. Now he could watch the puppy-creature without being bothered. There was a lot of space in the empty garage, and the door was up, letting sunlight spill across the concrete floor.

There was no excuse, thought Pasha, for allowing this strange creature into his home. Pasha was a very large silver-grey cat with extremely long fur, a huge fluffy tail, and a dignified manner. In all his years in this home, he had never allowed intruders. Then this creature was brought into his domain and allowed to live here! He thought it was some other kind of cat the first time he laid eyes on it, maybe one of those hairless Sphynx cats. But no, the humans said it was a dog. Well, it sure didn't look like any dogs he knew. They called it a shi-wa-wa. The silly thing was smaller than Pasha, had no sense, and yipped all day. That's probably why they put it out in the garage, Pasha thought.

He watched the shi-wa-wa venture to the doorway of the garage, look around, and go back to lie on the folded blanket the humans had given him. After he'd done that several times, Pasha sighed and dozed off on his shelf. Guess the shi-wa-wa wasn't going to leave, he thought. Too bad.

The clatter of a bicycle dropping over in the driveway woke Pasha. Now what? Another intruder. That human didn't belong in his garage, either. Man or boy human? Big, anyway. There he crouched in the doorway, and where was the shi-wa-wa? Right in front of the man-boy, that's where, wiggling his hind end and wagging his skinny tail like he was glad to see him! What a travesty of a tail. How sad, thought Pasha, thinking of his own long, fluffly, silver one. The man-boy was talking to the little dog and opening his jacket. Then he was picking the shi-wa-wa up.

That was quite enough for Pasha. He rose, stretched, and knocked a tall can of nails off the shelf. What a clatter! He jumped down to the workbench just as the startled man-boy quickly stuffed the shi-wa-wa in his jacket. Pasha, in his hurry to escape the noise, knocked a short jar of nails off the workbench in his leap to the floor. More clatter! He ran for the driveway and jumped onto the laid-over bicycle before the man-boy could reach it.

The door into the house flew open, and several pairs of human feet came pounding toward Pasha, but he stayed on the bicycle, dreadfully uncomfortable though it was, and watched.

What a ruckus! What mean humans, even his own! Why, one of them even hit the man-boy in the mouth after grabbing the shi-wa-wa away from him! That made Pasha jump off the bicycle and head for the nearest tree. From there he could see the man-boy grab up the bike and take off running with it, while trying to get on it. What a funny sight that was!

Pasha left the tree and ventured back into the garage while his humans were still babbling and waving their arms. They made such a fuss over the shi-wa-wa and seemed so glad he hadn't been stolen, that Pasha was amazed. But when they reached out to pet him too, and tell him how brave and wonderful he was, Pasha backed away. Yes, yes, I know all that, he thought.

Well, if they wanted to keep the shi-wa-wa that badly, he supposed he would just have to help look after him. At least until he was big enough to look after himself. That shouldn't be too long. Surely shi-wa-was grow up to be regular dogs, bigger than him, and his job would be over soon. It would, wouldn't it?

NEXT: The Rogue's Tale

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