A Christmas Kibble (Part 4): The Spirit of the Present Perch 🎄🍗🛋️✨🐾

Muffin awoke and found the room filled with a warm, ruddy glow. 🔴 He smelled something absolutely gloriumptious. 👃🍗

In the center of the room sat a giant Maine Coon, with a broad chest and a tail like a pine tree. 🌲🦁 He was sitting on a throne made of roasted turkeys, mountains of salmon pâté, and hundreds of crinkle toys. 🍗🥫🎾

"Come in!" exclaimed the Ghost. "Come in! And know me better, man!"

Muffin entered timidly. "Spirit, conduct me where you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is working now. If you have ought to teach me, let me profit by it." 🧘‍♂️✨

"Touch my fur!" 🦁

Muffin did as he was told. In an instant, they were standing in the small, humble kitchen of Toby—the Bob Cratchit cat. 🏚️

The room was cold, but the family was full of joy. Toby was there, looking very thin but very proud, showing his kittens a tiny, single piece of premium tuna. 🐟💎

"Is it enough, Father?" asked Tiny Tim-Kit, a small ginger lad who was resting on a **Sun-Soaker Tower** that was missing half its sisal. 🍼🏗️

"It is a feast, my son!" Toby purred. "And look! The sun is hitting the window just right. We are rich in sunbeams!" ☀️🌈

Muffin felt a pang of guilt. He had hundreds of cans of tuna in his pantry. He had three heated mats. And here was Toby, celebrating a single sliver of fish. 🥫⚖️

"Spirit," said Muffin, with an interest he had never felt before, "tell me if Tiny Tim will live."

"I see a vacant seat," replied the Ghost, "in the poor chimney corner, and a tower without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die." 😿💀

Muffin hung his head. "No, no! Oh, no, kind Spirit! Say he will be spared."

"If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population!" The Ghost quoted Muffin’s own words. 😾📉

Muffin shrunk before the Ghost's rebuke. He looked up, and the Spirit was gone. In its place stood a dark, hooded figure, tall and silent. 🌑👤

Ready for the next chapter? What is the Ghost of the Future? Find out in Part 5! 🐾✨