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towards the door and barrel her way past her newly arrived son. She thought of those things but she didn’t move. Mariya knew that if the horde of cats swarmed to her she would not survive the attack.
    Casanova made a clicking sound with his mouth. The cats carrying kittens paraded out the door and into the snowy night. He then turned to his mother.
    “I was starved, tortured, and emasculated.”
    Casanova kissed the kitten he was holding.
    “There will be no other like me again.”
    He knelt down and gave the kitten to the cat at his feet. With kitten in mouth, the cat exited as the others had. Casanova watched them go.
    “I’m destined to lead a lonely existence,” he said sadly. “One of your many gifts to me, Mother.”
    Casanova raised his head towards the ceiling and clicked with his mouth again. Mariya could hear padded paws moving about above her.
    “I’ve grown tired of the country, Mother.”
    All the cats Casanova had sent upstairs came running back down the stairs.
    “I now long for a life in the big city.”
    Casanova’s minions brought with them the rest of Mariya’s cats. The kittens lived in cages in the shop. The grown cats that hadn’t found homes all lived in cages on the third and fourth floors. The ones her son sent freed the ones she had caged. Dozens and dozens of cats all ran passed Mariya without even acknowledging her presence. They all went out the door as the falling snow began to rage.
    The bell rang once more as Casanova closed the door behind them. He locked the three locks and, after a moment of quiet contemplation, he turned his attention back to Mariya for one last time.
    “All I taste is the bitter, not the sweet.”
    Mariya remained silent as Casanova walked over to the large store front window. He first drew the curtain closest to him and the moonlight in the room began to fade.
    “This world I was born into is a cruel and horrible place and it shows no sign of changing.”
    Mariya could feel her time running out.
    “I’ve watched them,” he said with a glance to her. “Yes, there is love but there’s not enough.”
    He went to the other drape and slowly drew it closed.
    “The human heard must be culled,” he stated coldly as the last of the moonlight faded from the room, “or they will end it all”
    Mariya could hear her own heartbeat in the dark. She could hear her own breathing. Mariya could also hear a growl beginning to grow amongst the horde.
    “We exist to cull the heard, Mother,” she heard her son say though the darkness.
    “You don’t have to do this,” she pleaded quietly.
    She went to step forward towards her son, when her ankles were slashed.
    “You are culpable, Mother.”
    The cuts and the pain were deep.
    “You betrayed me.”
    She could feel her blood being spilled.
    “You rejected me and I suffered for it.”
    Mariya’s heart was racing. She had no place to go. She knew there was nothing she could do to avoid the inevitable. The raising growls around her told her that.
    “The time has come for atonement,” Casanova shouted above the din.
    Mariya Ouspenskaya died a grisly revenge driven death in her pet shop on that Christmas Eve morning. Her body would be found on Christmas day but not in any recognizable form. The shop bell had rung twice more before sunrise on the day she paid for her sins. Her son and his followers had come and gone. New York City was to be their home now and its ten thousand resident feral cats, along with the world at large, were about to be changed forever.