Read The Catbyrd Seat for Free Online

Ruskie wants to do things his way, I’ll do things my way. I’ll go round every Section of the Reservation and make sure everyone is too afraid to even think of voting for that Mr. Byrd.”
    “Good,” Whiska chuckled darkly. “Very good, Grady.”
    “And you can count on my help too,” said someone else, emerging through the crowds of Parliamentarians.
    It was Strip, the Prince and future heir to the throne.
    Strip didn’t know much about politics, but he did know one thing – he didn’t want the mice to have any power, because that might threaten his position as future heir. He was perfectly happy with the way things were. It suited him and his extreme laziness down to the ground. He had all the power of being a Royal but without any of the responsibility, because Whiska was the one in charge.
    “I’ll be your campaign manager,” he offered. “With the Prince backing you, you’ll definitely get more votes. I’ll even get out there and talk to some of the mice myself, tell them what a great cat you are and how you’re the best PM for the job.”
    “Perfect,” Whiska laughed, becoming more and more confident as a handful of other felines stepped forward to offer their assistance with the campaign, dividing the various jobs up between them.
    Whiska and his mighty army of cats would be a force to be reckoned with, and it was going to take an awful lot of hardwork and campaigning from the opposition to even get a slight look in. It was a good job, then, that the opposition had Piggles.
    ***
    Piggles was a lot more resourceful and imaginative than either Mr. Byrd or Cociel had initially given her credit for. Despite both having known her for a long time, and having been well aware that she was a vivacious reader with her own opinions, they hadn’t reckoned on her taking to the political venture of campaigning with such ferocity and tenacity.
    After advising Mr Byrd that he needed to get a Campaign HQ in the heart of the Reservation and promising him that she would take care of it, within two days of the campaign beginning, she had done exactly that.
    While it was illegal for mice to leave the Reservation except on Shopping Day, it was entirely legal for other animals from the Kingdom to come and go in the Reservation whenever they pleased. As such, nobody blinked an eye when she walked right in with a big smile on her face and a couple of rucksacks slung over her shoulders. It had been a long while since she’d been on the Reservation, and it took her a couple of minutes to get her bearings, but she checked the signposts up on the corner and soon found out where she was going.
    She passed a few mice here and there who recognized her from the Kingdom and said hello. She smiled and returned the greeting, then went about her own business just as they went about theirs.
    Eventually, she passed through Mouse Main Street, where the small handful of mouse shops were. Then she walked through the Park, where a few young mice were riding their bikes or kicking balls around. Finally, she emerged out the other end of the Park at Section C, but she walked right through that, past all the houses, and into Section D. The first few houses were the occupied ones. She could see that right away. The gardens had been tended to and looked after, and a couple of them had vehicles outside.
    Most of the houses further up into the section were in a sorry state of disrepair. They had broken windows, doors falling off, cobwebs and creepy crawlies everywhere. She walked up and down the streets for a moment, looking at each house in turn and trying to work out which one was the best. Some were worse than others. There were one or two that looked as though they’d been recently lived in. Perhaps the resident had died or moved to a different part of the Reservation but, for whatever reason, there was no longer anyone staying there.
    She picked out one of those, rather than the completely dilapidated ones, and marched right up to the front