the cat story

1

Leopold was cold. Cold was his least favorite thing to be. He hated it more than being bored or hungry, which is what got him into this mess in the first place. What mess had he gotten himself into, you ask? Leopold had managed to get himself stuck in a filthy, old, scratchy park tree. What made it worse was that there were dogs and children in the park, and he hated both. He hated children more than dogs, as they were always sticky. They always tried to grab him and play with him with their sticky hands and slobbery mouths. To distract himself from being cold, Leopold made a list of the things he hated in order: being cold, children, dogs, hunger, boredom. Unfortunately, lists can not get rid of hunger, the cold, children or dogs, and they only cure boredom for a small while.

He thought back to how he managed to get himself in the aforementioned park tree. It all started this morning, when his owner decided he was getting 'too fat' and that she needed to feed him less. Normally Leopold loved Beatrice, but today her health-kick had gone too far. He'd never minded her long walks around the neighborhood with him, or the 'health food' snacks she bought, afterall, snacks were snacks. This morning, though, he decided he'd had enough and set off to find his own food. Leopold had never hunted before in his life, but he thought that he was a cat and thus it should come naturally to him. Boy was he wrong; he started by walking down the block hoping he might find another cat's food bowl outside. No luck for him, all he could find were scraps in garbage cans, and there was no way he would eat that. Leopold was not a scavenger. He was a high class cat and he thought he deserved better than trashcan scraps. So, he made his first list of the day: Where I Can Find Food To Eat.The list went like: My house, Bowls outside, animal friendly cafes, the park, and trash cans. He set off to find the nearest animal cafe, but quickly realized he had only seen them on Beatrice's Instagram. He also soon realized that he was a cat and could not follow directions very well. Off to the park he went, in search of abandoned strollers with Cheerios in the bottom. There were quite a few strollers, but unfortunately, children tend to notice when cats try to take their food.

Leopold decided to wait it out; surely someone would leave their stuff to go play frisbee or test out the swings. And eventually someone did, and leopold decided to try his luck with the stroller. He approached it slowly, as if it were a bird and he was getting ready to pounce. Closer and closer he crept, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He was being so patient, almost too patient, when suddenly he was distracted by a squeal. I child had noticed Leopold and was running at him, sticky gross hands outstretched to grab him. Leopold panicked--he couldn't let those grubby hands near his fur--and started to run away. He ran wildly with no care to where he was going, he just had to get away from that...that thing! Unfortunately he wasn't paying attention and ran right into the picnic area. The children noticed the comotion and joined the chase, and Leopold had no choice but to keep running. This woke several sleeping dogs and the chaos began. There were both dogs and children chasing him and he was still hungry, it was his worst nightmare.

Frantically, he looked around for a place to hide and zeroed in on a line of trees. He dashed towards them with reckless abandon, he no longer cared where he got to, he just had to get away. After a particularly large child got in front of him and tried to catch him, Leopold dodged left and tried the first tree. He launched himself at it and scrambled up, trying to grip the rough bark. Beatrice had declawed him when he was just a baby, though, so he struggled. Eventually he found a foothold and used it to throw himself up the tree further. He kept grabbing branches until he was high enough to avoid the jumping dogs and screaming children. He watched from his safe branch as the children's mothers and fathers came to reign them back in and the dogs owners grabbed them and pulled them away.

(757 words)