WRITING PROMPT: Your cat is always going out at night and getting into fights with other neighborhood cats and strays. Later you discover that monsters actually appear outside your home every night at midnight and your cat has been protecting you by continually fighting them off.

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Mittens felt his heart thump in his chest as the deathly howl came from the end of the block, just up around the corner.

Tigger came up behind him, tactical knife held in his mouth. "Iff da tawget in sight?"

"Drop that knife from your mouth when you’re talking. I can’t understand half of what you’re saying." Mittens deftly jumped up onto the stone wall that surrounded his house. Luckily, he had managed to nudge various papers out of the way when his owner had moved and they were able to live in a more secure location, not that the idiot food-handler and poop-picker had noticed his incredibly good looking and brilliant kitty saving his life. Ungrateful bastard.

Tigger jumped up to the wall as well, gently setting the knife down as he looked around warily. "I don’t like this. Only one Howler, at this time of night? More should have mutated by now." His gravelly meow echoed off the side of the house in the quiet of the night as Mittens shot him a dirty look.

"Quiet down. Do you want the Howler to hear us?"

His suspicions proved to be correct, as the sound of feet pattering slowly began to make its way towards their position. "Shit, target’s coming in hot."

A massive Great Dane came into view, his eyes pitch black from the Corruption that took over stray Teethbags at this time of night.

Mittens cringed in disgust at the sight of the nauseating monster, as the massive animal glanced up, a wicked smile spreading across his face. "Here kitty kitty… nice wall you got there, snack. Think that’ll stop a big ol’ Howler like me?"

Tigger slowly leaned down, grabbing the knife in his mouth again as Mittens warily sized up the height of the dog. At three feet tall, the dog was a mere two feet from being able to reach the top of their wall, and he could easily reach that high by standing up on his back paws.

"We don’t want your kind here, foul beast. Take a hike, or our owner’s going to find a mess outside his house in the morning."

The four legged monstrosity licked his chops excitedly. "That’s cute, little kitty. You think the two of you can take me down? The only mess Johnny’s gonna see in the morning is what I don’t polish off your corpses."

"It ain’t just the two of us." A knowing glint appeared in Mittens eyes, as several figures began to appear in the darkness, all over the neighborhood.

"Yo, Mittens, you havin’ any troubles, man?" A Siamese cat licked his paws politely, cleaning himself as he prepared for the kill. "We’s got yo back, homie."

The Howler glanced around uneasily as he took a couple steps back from their wall. "You think y-you can take me on? You’re just a bunch of little furballs. I won’t go down without a fight."

Despite their major numerical advantage, Mittens swallowed slowly. "We know. For your sake, and ours, you’d best move along, little puppy. No easy prey for you here tonight. We hold the high ground."

Tigger trembled as he glanced around. Was it his imagination, or did he hear a howl in the distance?

The great dane’s uneasy look melted away as he cocked an ear in the direction of the noises. "Heh heh heh… well, listen to that. Reinforcements."

As a massive corrupted bulldog and two golden labs eased out of their fetid hiding holes into the darkness of the night, all of the cats reached for their weapons.

On this night, they would lose many friends.