the cat story

2

 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.

"All that over one little cat!" he heard one man chuckle. Leopold scoffed, well scoffed as much as a cat could, at the remark; he wasn't just 'one little cat'!

"Come along dear," a woman cooed at her disgusting toddler, "we don't want you to get scratched, now." Leopold didn't understand why the woman was so worried about the child when he was clearly in distress from the chase.

When the crowd finally cleared, Leopold relaxed--relieved to be by himself again. Unfortunately, once his brain cleared from the fear, he realised what a predicament he was in. The same issue he had getting up, would get in the way of him getting safely back down. And he couldn't just jump either seeing as there was some mud under the tree, stirred up from the feet and paws of the creatures that had chased him. Leopold added mud to his list of things he hates. He could try to play the "innocent cat" role to see if someone would pity him and get him down.

He saw a couple walking his way and started doing his best feel-sorry-for-me-meow. He tried to make it as loud as possible but no luck, the couple barely batted an eye at him. I'm adding most people to my hate-list, thought Leopold. If someone didn't even bother to look at him they were instantly going on the hate list, he decided.

He looked around for another way down, and decided to try to get to a nearby tree. The nearest tree had a branch that was only a few inches away. He began edging his way down the branch, wondering if cats really have nine lives. The branch swayed and wobbled beneath him, and Leopold found himself second guessing his decisions. He heard a crack and was so scared, he jumped up and grabbed the branch above him. Great, he was even further from the ground now. Leopold decided to stop and think logically about this. Eventually someone would see him and help him, right?

It was getting dark, though, and people would stop coming by--at least the kind of people Leopold wasn't afraid of. Leopold shuddered thinking about the kind of people who would come by at night, they were definitely not the kind of people who would help him. Drug addicts and robbers, that's who he decided came through the park at night. There would be no nice-young-couple-always-willing-to-lend-a-hand type people. Leopold thought about Beatrice and how she would never have let this happen to him if he had just stayed home. But he also thought about how if he had stayed home, he would've had to look at all the readily available food without getting to eat any. Food, Leopold thought, I never got my food! Unfortunately for Leopold, his tree was not the kind of tree that had food.

After a long day of walking, sprinting, climbing, and worrying--not to mention lack of food--he was exhausted. All Leopold wanted at this point was a nice warm spot and maybe some sleep, but definitely food too. He curled up on his branch and closed his eyes. He doubted he would be able to get much sleep but hey, it was worth a try.

(567 words)