Raining Cats, Dogs and Maple Syrup

Cooper's Car Trip

TW: If you are sensitive to scenes depicting car crashes, please skip the chapter. Otherwise read at your own risk!

''Come on Cooper, get in the cat carrier. Don't worry little buddy, when we get there we'll be stuffing our faces with pancakes!'' ''Meow?'' ''Fine, waffles too.'' Cooper placed his orange cat in the black and light pink carrier, with a tin of tuna, a bowl of water and their favourite mouse toy. Placing the carrier in the passenger seat in his red car, wrapping a seat belt around it and then he got into the driver's seat. Seat belt on and he adjusted his mirrors before pulling out of his garage in his Tastyville home. He drives up the mountain, the bright Thursday partly cloudy sky turns dark and heavy with clouds. The rain starts out as spritzes ''Should we stop at the side of the road?'' ''Well it doesn't look too bad, let's keep going.'' 

The spritzes become a torrential downpour, waves and huge splashes onto the wet roads. Fog descends onto the mountain ''Hold on Cookie!'' The car starts to hydroplane and swerve wildly between the two lanes. Thankfully Cooper's car was the only one on that road at the time, he couldn't stop so he made the choice to pull over to the right, slamming into a pine tree, several pine cones landed on his car roof and the next parts were a blur. Looking down at his lap, he saw shards of glass stuck in his arms, belly and upper legs, his vision was dark around the edges and in agony he got out of his car to assess the damages. The fender was all banged up, windshield, shattered, the aroma of burnt rubber and wet pine lingered in the air. The carrier containing Cookie was ejected from the car and landed a few feet away in a nest of brown damp pines and soil. He was weakened by the impact and standing up made his pounding head dizzy so he crawled towards the black and pink carrier. ''Cookie, Cookie? Stay with me, please, stay with me.'' He pulled out his phone, which was somehow fine and dialed 911 so they could get an ambulance there to find him. Reaching the carrier, he holds it tight to his chest and pets the outside of the carrier, then it all goes black. 

Cooper woke up to blinding white light and a maiden in light pink scrubs looked at him. ''He's awake.'' ''Are you an angel?'' ''Nope, merely a physician, Clair to be specific.'' ''So what's the extent of my injuries Clair?'' ''Well you have extensive skin wounds from the glass shards, a moderate concussion, a migraine and we've put you on some medications to help with the pain. In a few minutes we'll give you a few cognitive assessments and test the impact of the concussion on your brain.'' Cooper passed the tests and later did a CT-Scan on his skull, no visible or known damage to the brain. ''Where's Cookie?'' ''Who's Cookie?'' ''My cat, they were in the car when the accident happened.'' ''Well we do have an Animal Care ward, we can check there.'' ''Excuse me, do you have an orange cat with a yellow collar by the name of Cookie?'' ''We're afraid not, when we found you and your car, the cage door was broken open by the impact of the ejection.'' ''Can I go out and find them please?'' ''Sir, under federal law we have to keep you here until Saturday morning, that is the earliest you can be discharged.'' Cooper resigned to his fate and laid down in the hospital bed, falling asleep while staring out the window of the Maple Mountain Medical Lodge to the star filled night sky, the warm glow of the moon was calming and guided Cooper to sleep. 

Cooper was driving his car when pine cones rained down on his car, the tires started slipping and hydroplaned over...cookies? Each of the cookies shrieked like a cat, the trees along the side of the road had the imprint of the front of his car, he saw the carrier stranded under the pines, shattered glass all around. In that moment, the road beneath him vanished altogether and he plunged to his death. Then he woke up. ''No visible brain damage they said. Oh, Cookie!''