Only two days after our new moon flight I heard a large human approaching the cottage. I had hoped it was Dora, but I could tell this was a bulkier human striding through the woods. I meowed and Leonore squawked, so Griselda was not surprised by our visitor. I cocked my head as I watched her, jump up and check herself in her little mirror, patting her hair into place.

The stranger knocked loudly on the door.

“Griz, you home?” said a gruff voice.

“Xenir! You sly thing,” Griselda said opening the door. “It's about time you came to see me!”

The man, Xenir, was brawny and scruffy. One side of his face looked like it had been ripped to shreds by claws and badly healed, his eye on that side drooping and his mouth frowned on that side.

“Did you fly over the village the other night?” he asked. Griselda just laughed and put her arms around the man, pulling him into her cottage. I jumped down from my place on her bed and hissed at the intruder.

“What's this? A new stray for your collection?” he sneered, briefly looking in my direction.

“Oh, that’s Shadow. Only recently joined us,” she explained. She stood on her tip toes to lean into his face and put her mouth on his. While he was thusly distracted, I attacked his shin, yowling with my indignation.

“Shadow!” Griselda said in a scolding voice and I only just realized she was talking to me because she picked me up and looked me in the face. “What are you doing? Don’t attack Xenir! He’s welcome here!” I hissed in indignation.

She dropped me and opened the door again.

“If you can’t behave, you’ll have to stay outside!” she told me in an all-too serious voice. I meowed despondently as she pushed me out.

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I plopped myself onto the threshold grumbling in my head about the usurper. I supposed he could stay a short while. Surely he would be gone by my dinner time and things could be back to normal.

Griselda and Xenir spent some time in the cottage talking and then grunting and groaning in an odd sort of way. Even Leonore flew out the window and kept me company in the garden a while. I caught a mouse and shared some if it with Leonore while we waited for the usurper to leave.

When the door opened and the man stepped out, I thought he’d finally go and we could have our usual pleasant supper, but he only went out to take down the deer carcass and butcher it on the prep table outside.

I went into the cottage while he was outside and took my spot back on Griselda’s sleeping shelf while she was busy with a new stew. Unfortunately, Xenir came back in and they stored most of the meat in a box in the cottage but a good portion went into the stew. I kept hoping he would leave, but instead, while the pot boiled, Griselda sat in his lap and they put their mouths together in a very odd way.

I was only glad the stew smelled so good. That kept me from attacking the man again since I didn’t want to miss dinner. I thought they might eat each other rather than the stew which would leave much more for me. Griselda chuckled after I’d had that thought. However, after a while, she stood and portioned out the food giving the usurper the most generous portion of all.

I meowed in displeasure, but Griselda pretended she hadn’t heard me.

Leonore didn’t seem to care about the presence of the human since he got his usual kernels and went happily into his cage. When I got onto the sleeping shelf, the usurper had the audacity to push me off of it. Undeterred, I jumped back up, but then Griselda picked me up and told me to stay off of it for the night. When I ignored her and tried to find an unused portion of the shelf of which there was plenty since they were only sitting on part of it, she picked me up and put me outside. She also covered the window with the thicker drape tightly in place.

I had thought she valued my company! To be put out like an unwelcome piece of rubbish! I was mortified. Clearly, I would have to attack more fiercely in the future to prevent a human from taking my place in the cottage. I wandered into the forest and found a warm spot under a fallen log where I could be sheltered for the night.

Griselda and the usurper moaned and groaned into the night. It serves her right to choose him over me! I hoped she would learn from this experience.