Why do cats get 9 lives?

Was there any point to not doing patrols?  Even when Rudy wasn’t patrolling he’d run into bears.  Twice!  Rudy needed to build up his stamina so he’d decided to patrol the border, though at his own pace.  As day lengthened and he was about halfway through he’d moved to a lazier pace.  Every now and then a shoulder dipped low when his foot protested the length of the walk.  Rudy ignored it, so long as he could walk then he’d keep moving.  

The motley boy was determined to never again be some helpless victim.  He’d never again have a wolf making a mockery of him as it casually tore off parts of his body.  Rudy blinked away the awful memory and continued on in his walk.  The endless grass stretched out endlessly it seemed like but as he neared the northwestern most edge he could see the path that in time would lead to the bridge that would take one to Boreas.  He could imagine the path and remember how it had been to roam the path alone.  Memories drifted to him so that it took him a few moments to realize he wasn’t the only predator out this way.  In the grass, moving his direction was a tiger, and unfortunately, it had spotted him also.  The large cat was moving his direction and Rudy backed up a stride, ears flicking back and teeth showing.

He stalled himself from snarling long enough to let out a howl for assistance.  He wasn’t charging in but neither was he leaving.  Hopefully, someone was close enough to get here fast as the cat didn’t seem to like being watched and was giving him an appraising look.  It seemed like things would be fine and he’d get time to wait for assistance.  Then the cat suddenly charged and Rudy was forced into fighting before he wanted.   His first move was simply escaping the charging cat.  He spun about trying to get a bite of its back leg but the cat was quicker and the best he could do was avoid the return strike.

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