My life as a cat, Forest Ostrander [best novels to read for beginners txt] 📗

I sat curled up in a ball in the back of my cage. My turquoise eyes watched as the shelter people and outside people walked by. Every potential outsider who came to my cage and always looked me over and I them but I never once made the move to go up to the cage door.

"You won't want her," a brunet lady said to the last couple of the day.

"Why?" The little kid had asked, still trying to reach his small fingers into my cage to pet me.

"She isn't friendly. A shy cat will not make a good house cat for your family."

"So what will happen to her?" The little boy's mom asked.

"She will remain here until we are out of cages."

"Then what?" The father asked.

"Then she will unfortunately have to be put down." I stared at the brunet lady who had said this with no remorse. She in turn looked at me with her brown eyes.

"All right," I looked at the mother who said those two words with a sigh.

"But mommy! I want her!" The little boy cried as his mother pulled him away from my cage. I turned my head away from the scene. I didn't mean to be shy, I really didn't. I wanted out of this cage as much as the next stray here but I just haven’t felt that kind of connection with the potential adopters. Curling my tail around me, I kept my back to the cage door. My heart broke when the lights went off and the door was locked. Once more we had a night of no food and the water in my cage wasn't the best water. Once more I would be spending my time in this cage, every other family I had either couldn't handle me, developed an allergy to cats or just simply didn't want me anymore and every time I would end up back at this shelter once more. I knew my time here was coming to an end fast, the cages were near to being full and I like four other members here were the eldest residence who would be the first to go. Closing my eyes, I did my best to forget the idea of my looming death that awaited me in the future.

**********

I walked through the woods. I was a freshman in college, fresh out of high school. My latest project for my art class was to find a suitable thing to draw and hand in by Thursday's class. I knew the best places in the woods to find the prettiest looking animals, they were after all my specialty. Skipping down the dirt path that wound through the woods, I whistled one of my favorite tunes from one of my favorite movies. I was in a cheerful mood until I stopped. I heard a piercing wail pierce the air and rattle in my ears. I looked around in hopes to find what was causing that dreadful sound and unwillingly followed it. When I came into a clearing in the woods, I saw a strange black cat laying in the middle of the field screaming in pain. I ran up to him, not caring about what my parents have told me about running up to animals that were hurt. Kneeling down next to the cat I looked to see what the problem was and found his foot caught in a snare. Tears welled in my eyes as I tried to struggle to get the snare undone. "Hang in there," I had said to the cat. "I'm going to try to help you. Just hang in there." As I fiddled with the metal string the cat bit me on the hand. Pulling back with a scream of pain I looked down at the cat who was grinning at me. Wait, grinning? I had never thought cats could grin but here he was. Backing up and holding my bleeding hand close to my chest the cat began to laugh. Soon the snare disappeared and standing in front of me was a tall, pale looking man. His black hair hung loosely, framing his face in a black curtain. His green eyes sparkled as they looked me over."Yes, you are indeed a good contestant."

"What are you talking about? Who are you?" My body screamed for me to run but for some reason his gaze held me to the spot. "I am Luther. Warlock of Hell." I cocked my head and said in the best tone that I could muster to sound strong. "Sorry, but I don't believe in magic." I took a few more steps back, constantly trying to pry my eyes away from his. "You don't need to believe in magic. Soon you will be nothing more than a furry, four legged creature as well." I stopped in my tracks. "What are you talking about? What the hell did you do to me?!" The man laughed. "I gave you a gift. Well, more like a curse but a gift none the less." I looked at my bleeding hand and noticed the bite mark wasn't there anymore, instead my hand wasn't even a hand, and it was a white paw!

"What's happening to me? What is this?" I wanted to scream out to anyone around but I knew no one would be in the woods, not on my family's land. It was private property and trespassing would end up getting them shot. "Don't fear my dear. Soon it will be all over." I clutched my chest as a huge wave of pain washed over my body making me kneel down on the ground. Gritting my teeth I felt my canines lengthen and sharpen to a point, my face shrunk into that of a cats muzzle and I soon sprouted ears. My head had shrunken as well and my body soon diminished to nothing but a small, sleek body. White fur coated my skin and a fluffy white tail popped out. Soon after a few minutes I was looking up at the man who was grinning down at me. "Enjoy your life as a cat my dear. You will be spending your life like this from now on." And with a deep rumble of laughter he disappeared. I threw my head back and let out a scream but only heard the yowl of a cat.

*********

I woke up to the rumble of food being dumped into my dish. My water had been replaced and there was new litter in my litter box. I had spent over 100 years as a cat and still the human’s version of food never changed. When my cage was latched once more behind the care taker, I padded up to the dish of dry pellets and sniffed at it. Scrunching my nose up in discus I forced myself to swallow three mouthfuls of the nasty food. You would think after spending years of eating this stuff it would get better but nope. In fact, if you asked my opinion on it, it only grew even more nasty. Plus the dry bits made you drink more water than needed just to wash it down. Peering through the bars I watched the man with the curly blonde hair. He was nicer than the others and I had grown a somewhat liking to him but I still never let him touch me, I hardly let anyone here even put a finger on me. Hearing the ring of the familiar bell over the door to the shelter, I watched as a teenage boy entered the shop. His hair was a deep blonde and his eyes were a beautiful shade of Greene. A few freckles dotted his face and when he smiled it caused dimples to appear on his cheeks.

"May I help you?" The man had asked the boy.

"Yes. I came here looking for a cat." The man looked at the boy.

"How old are you son?" He asked.

"I'm 21 thank you," the boy had said but not once did he lose his smile. I never took my eyes off of him and for once in my life, I didn't really care. After moments of hesitation the man nodded and led the boy back to where we were.

"We have an assortment of pets here. Mainly cats so feel free to look around." With that the man went back to his clip board. I watched the boy as he peered in cage after cage, occasionally he would pet the head of a dog or scratch the chin of a cat and everyone called out to him, everyone but me. I couldn't find my voice, all I could do was watch as he inspected every cat and dog here until he reached my cage.  Leaning down to peer in at me he asked.

"What is this one called?" The man turned to look at us and smirked.

"Don't get your hopes up on that one. She lets no one touch her let alone get near her." I hissed at the man which shocked the both of them.

"I think you offended her," the boy said laughing. The man chuckled.

"It appears so." I glared at the man but looked at the boy and brushed up against the cage. I didn't know why all of a sudden I felt like showing affection to a human, especially after the years of torture and beatings I had taken from my 'families' but for some reason, I felt the need to show it to him. I felt the boys gentle fingers brush against my white fur and a purr soon erupted from my throat. I had almost forgotten what it was like to feel a gentle touch.

"Well would you look at that," the man said. "Looks like she likes you."

"Looks like it. So can I take her?" The boy looked at the man who lost his smile.

"I don't know. Every family who has take her has always brought her back complaining she wasn't compatible with them." I looked at the boy once more and let out a low meow before reaching out one of my paws and batted him on the nose. The boy giggled and went back to petting me through the bars.

"I think I can handle her. How old is she?"

"That's the thing. We don't know. She doesn't look to be any older than 2 years but she has been through family after family and has never once shown any signs of being old."

"Maybe she has the luck of the youth?" The boy said. He had stopped petting me and had pulled his hand out of the cage. Much to my protests he just smiled at me before looking back at the man.

"May I please take her home? I have the money to pay for her and I have a perfect home for her. She will be welcomed." The man was silent and I knew he was debating on whether or not to give in. After a few minutes went by he sighed.

"I'll go get her records. Fill out the paperwork on her chart and she is yours." The boy grinned from ear to ear as he quickly filled out the essential paperwork. Paperwork I had watched millions of other families fill out only to bring me back weeks later to fill out a return form. Taking the manila folder form the man he opened up my cage and picked me up. I growled in protest but refrained from scratching him. This was my chance to get out of this place and my evacuation of the cage surely saved the other older residence from a short death, at least until my cage was filled with another stray animal.

"Like I said. Be careful with her, she's a feisty one," the man had said watching us as the boy carried me out the door.

Taking in a huge deep breath of fresh air, I