I paced back and forth, angry. I could see him through the metal bars in front of me, just staring as if he had lost all knowledge of my existence, all connection with the real world, the now. I stared at him as I paced, ignoring the trees that interrupted my view as my paws padded swiftly from one side of the fence to another.

I let my energy, my rage, curl itself into my haunches and launch me with perfect aim at the fence. I couldn't fit through the bars, and slammed against them with a dull, unhealthy sounding thud. I rolled back to my feet, bruised slightly; he hadn't noticed.

I tried to growl, but it came out as a pathetic mew, a weak complaint. I couldn't fathom why this human had brought me here, saved me when I was prostrate from hunger, just to let me starve here. I had been here several months, well fed, well taken care of. It wasn't nearly the same as being free, and sometimes the bars threw me into a frenzy of despondency, but it was certainly better than being dead. It was an easier life in many ways.

Not long ago, the food stopped coming. This would have been well enough had there been wild game living inside my cage, and had I received water even, but it was not the only strange thing that had happened. The humans had stopped coming. I remember there used to be many humans who would come to watch and point, or come into my cage to fed and water me.

This human with the wild smell, always with the smell of other animals clinging to him, and with chestnut eyes and hair the color of maple bark, was the first I had seen in many days. It was if we were alone in the world, even though I could smell other of his kind on his hands, not a day old.

I mewed again, and tried desperately to stick a paw through the four-sided fence. How could he not notice me? We were the only ones here, and my need was great enough that he should have felt it without my help. I was starving and ready to die of thirst. I was starving, almost, for the attention I had been used to receiving from him and the other regular humans.

My stomach growled, and he looked up. I could smell that he was sad, and a little afraid; he could see my plight, surely. I leaned against the bars, panting frantically as he walked away. He was my only chance; he was the only one here, the only one that had come. I would die soon if something wasn't done, and he walked away, around where I could not see him. I followed his scent around the cage, mewing very loudly, and growling when I could manage.

He stopped at a door to my cage, and opened it with great difficulty involving another metal thing that made sparks and strange, burning smells. He swung the thing out of my way, and stepped to the side; he was very afraid now, but I was hardly paying attention to him anymore. I was free! For what it was worth, I could starve of my own accord instead of being trapped in my cage.

I was hungry enough to eat him, but I was grateful enough and elated enough to rush past him, running past where he could see me, until I couldn't even smell him. I trotted off the concrete, and continued in the first direction that took me away from the smell of rotting, spoiled flesh too long ago dead to eat.