Chapter 41: Strange Carnivores

"Sure." Sherry pulled open a drawer and started handing me underwear and clothes. I got dressed and felt better for having clothes on. It didn't surprise her that I went from barely being able to move to walking in less than an hour.

Sherry took my hand and led me out to the back where the pig pen was. I couldn't tell if it was the same pig. The sow came over to the fence and Sherry rubbed it between the ears. She took me to a shed at the back that looked like it held firewood. There was a box with a blanket draped over it. She pulled back the blanket and I looked into the box.

"Those are cougar kittens!" I said.

"Of course," Sherry said, "they're Myrtle's." As if the name conjured up the cat, a mountain lion padded into the shed and rubbed up against Sherry like an oversized house cat. Myrtle sniffed delicately at me and licked me with a tongue like sandpaper.