Fluffy Returns

It was a hard night of sleeping and I was tossing and turning, so I flipped on my side, facing the wall as the back of my hand brushed against something, pulsating, I had touched it. And when I flipped onto my other side, turning my back to it, it took that moment… to pounce.

I gasped, my breathing cut off by a large mass pressing down against my back, crushing me against my pillow. I wiggled my arms and legs desperately, trying to push the ‘thing’ off me. It made a deep rumbling sound, almost like…purring. A cat? But…I don’t own one. Not since…

Madam Toebeans Fluffers Fartbaby had passed away almost 2 years earlier. (The vet knew her as “Fluffy”, of course.) What if my beloved pet was not gone? What if she was back, and 4 times her previous size? Impossible, right?

"Fluffums?" I whispered. The panther made a sound deep in its throat, half growl, half purr. It wrinkled its nose & bared its fangs, then padded into the kitchen. I heard it knocking around the table. I peered around the doorway to see the big cat had overturned the milk carton.

In that moment I saw it—beneath the sleek danger was something achingly familiar. The panther lapped at the puddle of milk with slow, deliberate strokes, then glanced up at me with those same green eyes I used to trust. My breath caught. Maybe, just maybe, Fluffums had come home.