I swear to god I'm cursed.
I was walking home the long way from the train, the dangerous way, at 2am in the rain - my normal train isn't running on weekends this month and, while I'm sure it doesn't inconvenience the nine-to-fivers much at all, it sucks just a bit for the less traditional of us.
I stop and get fried chicken because it's my Friday, damnit, and broke or not, a dude needs chicken every once in awhile. Chicken and fries. Poor man's Thanksgiving, one step up from a turkey sandwich.
I'm carrying my chicken and my bag and I'm trying to look like trouble because I don't want any, when I'm scared half to death by the long, drawn-out sound of a mewing kitten. Badass 0, kitten 1 - I was scared because he didn't say anything until I was right on top of him or, more accurately, under him.
He kept mewing, and it took me a second to find him.
Cats, kittens in particular, get themselves into the most ridiculous places. This one was perched on top of the wrought-iron security gate that barred the door to an anonymous little working class club, closed for the night. He was sandwiched between the gate (which wasn't more than an inch thick) and an air conditioner, seven feet in the air. He was filthy, and thin, and scared to death.
And I couldn't do anything for him. I apologized and walked away, and he, with a target now, began howling his little head off. I got half a block away, stopped, turned around and went back.
He wasn't stuck; that made things easier. But he was terrified. I worked him free and held him to my chest and tried, if even for a little, to calm him down. Hugs wouldn't calm him, I knew that. Food and warmth and a bath would, but see...I have two cats already, both rescued from the street, both in the rain, both cold and wet and miserable and sick and abandoned.
I left him under an awning on the way home, in a corner where hopefully he'll ride out the rain. He followed me to my front door with his eyes; if he'd actually followed me, I don't know WHAT I'd've done.
I'm sorry, Peach. S'the best I could do.
(yeah. I named him. Stupid move on my part.)