Once you are caught, that’s the end, they say.

Now he knows it to be true.

His tail catches against the cage again, pulling against the fur in a startling and painful way. The woman is in the small room with him, and she seems to hear his cry and makes one of her own. It’s a lilting sound, something he can’t quite understand the meaning of, but he understands the intent. She means to comfort him with her noise, but he is suspicious of her.

Her hands fumble with the latch and before she can try to grab him, he jumps from the vertical cage onto the floor, scooting past her while she replaces his food and replenishes his water.

He has only a few minutes out here, in the room filled with toys that have a strange taste and texture. None of the animals in this room are alive, as far as he can tell. They simply lie there until the woman finishes with his cage and comes to manipulate them. Their insides are filled with dander, some kind of material that chokes him if he tries to swallow it. Their fur tastes wrong too.

The woman jiggles a mouse on a stick, but he ignores her, instead sitting by the window. His careful eyes watch the animals, the humans, as they move beyond him. He aches to be outside again—the smell and the air he’s gotten used to, but it clings to his fur and he can feel it stagnate—and feel the fresh air on his whispers.

He sees a bird in a tree out there, his sharp vision recognizing before he even turns his head. His eyes are wide and his pupils slit; he calls to the pray, even though he knows it won’t be heard. The bird simply goes about hits business, it’s jerky head movements searching for new material to make a nest. He’s sure it would have a field day with the strange creatures in this room.

He sees the wind blowing through the grass, hears muffled noises come from the humans and leashed pets before him.

There’s only one way to get out of here, he knows.

The woman scoops him up from behind and deposits him back into the cage, his sliver of repressed freedom come to an end already.

She wiggles her fingers in his cage, and then she is off before he can bat them away.

And now he waits—waits for the next career, or for someone on the outside to put him on one of those leashes.

He fate is sealed, and there’s nothing he can do to change it.