Light after Dark

Just to lighten the mood that I kind of set with my last post, here's a little something about what happened tonight (maybe last night, by the time I finish this). I'm so glad I have friends.

The ocelot kept her eyes on the dark waters with a small grin on her lips. Her day had been utterly horrid. Late for teaching younglings how to swim, nine hours patrolling, patrollers failing to come to the river to fulfill their duties, disgusting messes made by the visitors at the river, all had plagued her hours of daylight. But after the sun had set, things started to look up.

By some stroke of luck, several wonderful friends came to the river. The leopard seal had helped clean up the disarray left by the less considerate of the visitors and then had made the ocelot laugh as she settled in for her longest stint of patrolling yet.

Then the kangaroo had appeared. A beaming smile had broken out on the ocelot's face as she chatted with the bubbling visitor.

The next friend to register on the ocelot's radar had been the malamute. After berating him for not responding to repeated messages sent to him, the cat was more than happy to trade several jests with the dog. She also tried to teach him the correct way to slip down the river bank, but he failed miserably.

As the ocelot continued her pacing along the bank, a familiar voice reached her ears. "Blind! Blind!" it shouted. The ocelot turned her head to see the tomcat wading in the shallows. She hadn't seen the other cat for an entire cycle of the moon, so it was quite a pleasant surprise.

The night's patrolling passed much more pleasurably with the frequent sightings of her friends. In a combined effort, they even got her singing happy songs that actually existed, as opposed to her usual inventing of tunes. Before she knew it, the night was drawing to a close.

The dark waters were clearing of visitors and the ocelot idly twitched her tail as she watched the patterns of the liquid. Her eyes were growing wide as though entranced by the dancing reflections of light. Then her mind quickly revived her, reminding her that she had duties to attend to.

She looked back from the bank, trying to find the patroller that she was supposed to be exchanging reports with. But instead of finding her fellow, she saw a black shadow stalking towards her with glowing, malicious eyes. The ocelot hissed in fright and bared her teeth and claws. The shadow stepped into a path of moonlight and the cat's muscles relaxed as she sighed. The malamute looked rather dejected that she had discovered his attempt to chuck her in the water. Chasing him off quickly, she got back to watching the empty water.

I don't feel like writing a satisfying end to this. Anyway, this was actually last week. Now the food (brownies, pretzels, cookies and the like) that the leopard seal's mom left us is gone, so are the many cans of soda, and the water bottles. She is now one of my favorite parental figures outside of my own.