Quality conversation

*It's not fair,* said Shag as he and Sonic sat idling away time in the basement. *Why can't we go run and play all over the house all the time? I don't want to stay in here all day.*

*Well,* said Sonic, looking stoically at the younger cat, I'm down here because the humans just can't stand that I don't always like to pee in the litterboxes. That and the fact that at least one of the humans in charge won't allow any litterboxes in the general house. So we have to stay down here.*

*That's silly,* said Shag. *Why not?*

*Who knows why humans do anything?* said Sonic. *Most of'em are good for nothing, bumbling old scums.* And he meant it. Sonic felt he had plenty to be bitter about.

*But can't we change their minds?* said Shag. *I go run around the house still once in a while, and I also go into the Room with my parents and the girl.*

*I doubt anything's gonna change,* said Sonic. *Humans aren't out to serve us. Sometimes they really screw us over.*

Shag blinked innocently at Sonic. *But I love when the girl pets me and sings to me. She wouldn't screw me over. I know she wouldn't.*

Sonic fixed Shag with his crooked-face, orange-eyed gaze. *All it takes is one wrong human and you're screwed for life.*

*How?* said Shag.

*Take me, for instance,* said Sonic. *I peed in a few places they didn't like and poof, they brought me to the butcher shop they call the Vet. I went to sleep and when I woke up my testicles were gone.*

Sonic grimaced. *I never even got to trot out the things even once. I'll never be like my old tom...Bizkit, the legend. I knew him when I was a kitten, used to hear all about his conquests from my mother, always dreamed of following in his pawsteps. Not gonna happen now. Humans. And you never know just when or where it's gonna happen, either. They don't give you any warning.*

*The girl would never let anything like that happen to me!* Shag's fur stood on end.

*Just keep your ears and eyes open,* said Sonic. *Especially for what the older humans say. What they say often goes.*

*I say we start a....a....what's it called when a bunch of folks get together to try to change things?* said Shag.

*A campaign?* said Sonic.

Shag purred. *That's it, a campaign.*

*Good luck,* said Sonic.

*We can call it...Freedom in the House!* said Shag.

* * *

That evening the girl came down to the basement to pet, talk to, hang out with and comb the coats of Sonic and Shag. She found quite a few tangles in Shag's coat and wondered just what he had been up to all day.