Frighten Fuzzy: Fuzzy and the Vulture

 

       There was an interesting rumor going around Fuzzy the cat’s neighborhood that not only had her whiskers twitching but her tail swishing.  Apparently, there were a couple of vultures in town and the interesting thing about it was they weren’t from around here.

          Meeee-what??????????

          To make this clear, Fuzzy lived in the western part of Pennsylvania.  In her area, turkey vultures ruled and other parts of the state were lucky enough to see black vultures.  When they came to town for their yearly visit, they were always coming to the neighborhood because there were a lot of trees and water, courtesy of the neighborhood creek.  She thought they were kind of goofy looking but they didn’t bother her that much.  As a meow of fact, Fuzzy never really worried about vultures.  She figured they got rid of all the dead animals and made the outside a lot cleaner.  They were meowy cool in her book, so hearing a rumor that a different type of vulture was in town got her thinking.

          “What kind is it?”  she asked Toni, her younger sister who looked nothing like Fuzzy (who was calico for reference), she was a short-furred tuxedo cat who was on the plump size.  As a meow of fact, if you looked at Toni, you’d be surprised at how much she literally pawed around.  As a meow of fact, Toni was the nature-patrol cat.  She was always ready to tell the other kitties what new birds were in town and what animals were pawing by.

          “How in the meow do I know?”  she asked, twitching her whiskers.  “I’m no human.”

          Fuzzy rolled her eyes.  Toni was a smart-ass kitty.  “Where did you see him at?”
          “Up on the hill behind the house,” she meowed, “I just saw him a couple of hours ago.”

          “Sounds great,” Fuzzy meowed, “let’s go up and check it out.”

          Toni’s eyes widened and she kind of shrunk back.  “No meowing way.”

          “Why not?”  Fuzzy asked.  The idea of seeing something new was purr-fectly pawsome.  After all, Halloween was coming and there was the idea of trying to FRIGHTEN FUZZY.  Vultures were the purr-fect Halloween animal and Fuzzy wondered if a different type of vulture would give her the creeps.

          Toni’s eyes got to that saucer stage.  “I’m not messing with no vulture,” she meowed.  “What if he’d come after me?”

          Fuzzy’s whiskers twitched.  “Are you meowing serious?”  she asked.  “This dude won’t come after you.  Vultures aren’t like hawks.”

          Toni shuddered.  “Once is enough for me,” she meowed.  Then her ears and tail perked up at the same time.  “Go find Eddie.  He’ll go with you.”

          “I haven’t seen Eddie all afternoon,” she meowed.  “It’s purry- I’ll paw up there on my own.”  And on that note, Fuzzy headed to the back and soon found herself in the backyard.

          It was a purr-fect Halloween type evening.  The ground was damp and covered with leaves, the moon was out and full.  As a meow of fact, the moon was full enough that it lit up the whole backyard.  Now, from what Toni meowed Fuzzy figured she wasn’t that far away from the strange vulture’s location.  She just hoped that he was still there.          

          Okay, I know what you’re wondering was this enough to Frighten Fuzzy?  No, believe it or not, Fuzzy was feeling paws-itively purry.  Sure, the outside looked spooky, but it was purr-fect for Fuzzy.  It was the right kind of atmosphere that could make for all kinds of purry things!

          Then out of nowhere there was a huge squawk and Fuzzy’s head shot up and that’s when she saw him.  Holy meows it was a different kind of vulture!  He was a handsome dude with huge black wings that were extended and a nicely shaped white head.  Fuzzy could tell that he had great looking feathers bepaws the moon was shining right on him.  It looked like there were white specks in them too.  He was just sitting there on the oak tree watching her with no care in the world.  “Meeee-wow!!!”  Fuzzy yowled.  “What kind of vulture are you?”

          It was meow-mazing that this dude didn’t seem to Frighten Fuzzy but Fuzzy was a different kind of cat.  She liked looking at new things and was curious about interesting animals.  The fact that this strange bird was here was paw-mazing in her mind.  Fuzzy wasn’t going anywhere and that was surprising to the vulture.

          He hopped down to a lower branch.  “You’re a cat,” he said.

          “And you’re a vulture,” Fuzzy replied.

          Clever kitty that Fuzzy.

          They just stood there looking at each other for a minute.  Sure, the thought Fuzzy went through her head that this dude would go after her, but she stood firm.  The funny thing was the moon seemed like it got brighter.  The vulture seemed surprised by Fuzzy’s guts.

          “You’re one cool cat,” he said. 

          “What are you doing in my neighborhood?”  asked Fuzzy.  “It’s cool that you are here but meeee-wow I’m really surprised to see you.  Where are you from?”

          “Africa,” he answered.  From there he went on to tell Fuzzy a horrible story and it did Frighten Fuzzy.  To summarize, it went like this:

          The vulture told Fuzzy that he was what humans call a white-backed vulture.  He said his home was being hurt by poachers that poisoned a lot of carcasses and that humans were building a lot of wind turbines that were over areas that he liked to fly around.  He didn’t like it, paw-viously, and he saw a lot of his friends die thanks to these turbines.  No human was really talking about it, he said and covered up everything by saying it was something called ‘climate change.’ 

          “These turbines are terrible,” he said.  “I’ve seen a couple of vultures in my family get their wings cut off.  Humans don’t care though.  They want to build more and, on my way, here, I saw more all through Europe.”

          “What made you come here?”  ask Fuzzy.

          “Instinct,” the vulture answered.  “It’s possible more will come here too.  Now, it isn’t just the turbines, humans like to kill rhinos, lions and all kinds of animals just to feel proud of themselves and poison the parts they don’t want so we vultures can’t eat.  Humans don’t care bepaws it’s easier to play on the computer than to really help animals.”

          “Meeee-wow,” Fuzzy yowled.  “What are you going to do now?”

          “We vultures just want left alone cat,” he replied.  “We just want to be in peace.  We don’t want to be poisoned or have our wings cut off.”  With that he spread his wings and soared up to the full moon.  He was a paw-tastic site on this cool autumn night.  Fuzzy watched him go west towards another part of the woods.  Fuzzy hoped he stayed around for a long time.

          However, as she headed back home she thought about what he said.  She remembered seeing photos of the wind turbines on the human’s computer and got all kinds of images in her head about vultures having their wings cut off and all of the blood being splattered in every direction.  These thoughts frightened Fuzzy more and do you know what…?

          It should frighten you too.