My blue eyes peeled open and slowly took in the world around me.  Mother on my right.  Two sisters and  a brother on my left.  Hard concrete underneath me.  Other brother and other sister on top of me.  Rusty can a few feet away.  I edged out of the little space between my mother and siblings, shivering a little as the cold street air hit my dirty, ebony black fur.  I sniffed around, looking for something decent to eat.  

      Sometimes I was just content with Mother's milk, but I just felt like eating  something different today.  I ended up digging  a half eaten tuna sandwich out of the garbage, devouring  it, and hurrying back to the warm safety of Mother and my siblings.   

     Some time later, the rest of my siblings woke up and had their breakfast.  I wasn't hungry, but ate as much as I could hold because I knew we would be lucky if we have time to eat again before sundown.  After everyone finished, we were on the move.

     As we wove through narrow alleys and hopped over garden fences, always careful not to be seen by any humans, I caught glimpses of other cats inside the houses.  Eating huge amounts of food from fancy plastic bowls,  sleeping in  beds bigger than I was tall,  playing with noisy, terrifying toys that  dumped food on the floor.  'Gosh, they look comfortable'  ran through my brain.  I blinked.  Where did that thought come from?  Those cats did not look comfortable, the were trapped without any chance to be free!  And yet... I couldn't quite shake off the thought that I'd like to have a home like that myself.