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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#187: Cat People

I love cats. Independent, sassy, badass, unbothered, adorable, playful, and cuddlier than popular culture makes them out to be, they’re one of life’s everyday miracles. 


They live with us, but they are mysteries to us, and it can be incredibly fun to imagine their secret lives — and all the parts of their realities we aren’t privy to. This week, let’s think about ordinary and unusual cats alike, and take a moment to appreciate the magic they bring to our lives.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a character being led somewhere by a stray cat.

Adventure – 109 stories

Write a story from the point of view of a big cat — whether that’s a lion, cheetah, etc., or just a chunky pet.

Funny – 48 stories

Write about a cat living in an ancient temple, like the Acropolis.

Fiction – 17 stories

Set your story in a cat shelter.

Fiction – 24 stories

Write about a human and a cat that come to some kind of mutual understanding.

Character – 126 stories

Stories

“Dead! Who Me?” by Mark Gagnon

Submitted to Contest #187

The moon was full but shrouded in a halo of clouds. If the stars were out tonight, they must have found some other part of the universe to twinkle in because there were none to be found in my sky. A stiff wind added to what was already turning into a night to forget. The only welcoming light emanated from a hangout my friends and I call The Shelter. It was time to pop in and pay a visit.I headed down the street, carefully avoiding the random circles of light given off by the streetlamps that were still working. My hearing snapped to full att...

3 comments 3
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“Charlie” by Kyle Bennett

Submitted to Contest #187

Content Warning: Death, alcoholism, depression, thoughts of self-harm Daniel preferred the "airline" bottles. They were easier to steal from the liquor store and easier to hide from the scum out there who would steal them from him. His fingers were almost too numb to twist the tiny cap, but the promise of a shot of - he glanced at the label - pineapple rum gave him superhuman determination. The meager dose of syrupy fire barely warmed his belly as it washed not enough of the rising bile of memory back down his throat.  The six bottl...

8 comments 8
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“Why Cats Have Nine Lives” by Eric Schrag

Submitted to Contest #187

The abrupt knock on the door startled Kendall. It wasn’t an unusually aggressive knock, just unexpected. ‘Who could that be… at this time of day? I hope it’s not…,’ she thought to herself. A hint of panic rose in her as she quietly crept to the window and surreptitiously peeked through an ever-so-slight crack in the curtains.The piercing sliver of light focused into perceptible images and revealed her innocent next-door neighbor, Avis, waiting patiently at the door. Avis was a kind, elderly woman who normally kept to herself. She was one of ...

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“Chester” by Nona Yobis

Submitted to Contest #187

The soft trill of the bell above the door echoes through the shelter, and my whole body stiffens. It’s 10:00AM on a Wednesday, which means that Mrs. Melbourne is here for her routine visit. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I can be sure of her melodramatic presence, with her cloud of emotional theatrics trailing behind her. It’s not that she is a particularly bad person, or that she is cruel to the cats under my care here at my rescue, Feline Feelin’ Fine. But it is difficult to entertain any other adoptions while she carries on in ...

8 comments 8
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“Abominable encounter” by Giuliano Olivotto

Submitted to Contest #187

Shorttail roamed the rocky, snow-dusted terrain of the Himalayas, his sharp blue eyes searching for prey. His thick gray fur protected his magnificent form from the icy winds that blew spitefully at him. The bristling hairs rippled in the breeze, like waves in the sea. Sharp snowflakes landed on the tips of his ears and melted into droplets of moisture. He had honed his hunting skills over many years in these mountains, but with no one to share his triumphs and victories with, he felt a deep loneliness. He paused, sniffing for the slight sce...

4 comments 4
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“Black Cats and Black Sheep” by Marshall Gothage

Submitted to Contest #187

After taking a deep, controlled draw of his Italian cigar, he pointed it at me to indicate it was my turn to shoot. The game's tempo had flatlined as we played hide and seek with only the cue and eight-ball remaining on the table. Our pockets were on opposite sides, causing a stalemate in which neither of us was willing to give up a good position and risk losing the five dollars.  Five dollars feels like ten when you win it in pool, twenty when you can barely make rent. There's a sweet satisfaction in hearing silence wash over a demean...

10 comments 10
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“Stray Cat” by Susana Sela

Submitted to Contest #187

The sun was beating relentlessly on the old cobblestone streets of the city when the stray cat appeared out of the shadows. It was a small, scruffy feline, its fur dyed a dull gray. Its eyes were a deep yellow, and they seemed to be dancing in the fading light that surrounded it. It stared at the girl for a few seconds and then continued on its way. She followed the cat, winding through the narrow alleys and passages of the old part of the city. There was something about that animal that urged her to go after it and she did so without even c...

6 comments 6
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“The Bridge” by Bill VanPatten

Submitted to Contest #187

Jason stumbled to the bridge, each step a struggle, his body heavy with grief, his mind fuddled by alcohol. He wasn’t sure what day it was, where he’d been earlier. Oh, yeah. The bar. They’d tossed him out, eighty-sixed him just as happy hour was ending and said, “No more, Buddy.” He wasn’t that drunk, though—and certainly not belligerent. Just crying into his martini, weeping like a five-year-old—the salt of his tears mixing with the drink, indistinguishable from the juice of the plump olives impaled within the glass, dead.  He step...

9 comments 9
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“Satan's Tongue” by Oh Joelle

Submitted to Contest #187

Sunlight dappled the fallen leaves of the ground as Astrid Blackwood skipped through the well-worn pathway. She took a moment to breeze in the fresh spring breeze as she made her way into the Tumbledown village square. Her basket was thumping against her chest and her hair loose in her back. She hopped into the market square, heading for the direction of the bakery. She needed to buy some bread for her and her family’s supper. Her eyes glanced past the bakery and saw a black cat, prowling around the edges of the alleyway. That cat was the vi...

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“The Magnificent Maron Maloney - Part 1/4” by Russell Mickler

Submitted to Contest #187

The Magnificent. Rolling into Pondaroak. Benzie’s Discovery. Taika Maru, a strikingly beautiful Bengal tiger, lolled in her cage, lazily watching rhododendron trees go by as the rickety wagon exited the forest. “Pondaroak,” she heard the guide say. Seated in the wagon’s pilot chair, Maron Maloney, a lanky Gaelwyn man with an impressive handlebar mustache with waxed, curled ends, said, “Ha! And as you promised, long before dusk, ranger. You’ve earned your commission and then some. I’ll see to it you’re rightly compensated once we reach the Sw...

9 comments 9
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“The Cat, The Dragon, and The Maneki-Neko: A Mike Dodge Mystery” by Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #187

The mid-September breeze caressed my newly shorn neck, and I felt like the shit, senior heavyweight class.At the right-angle gutter between the Dollar Palace and Sandy’s Beauty Supplies, warm, brisk cross-currents had trapped a dust-devil of discarded Rescue Squad Subs wrappers, dead Fireball nip bottles, used vape pods, and even a deceased Trojan kiting about like a Man-of-War in a hydrothermal vent of sadness. The sirocco coursing in from the Beltway bore an incense of double-stacked burger, non-trans-fried chicken, cumin and curry and gar...

22 comments 22
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“My Emmy” by Kevin V

Submitted to Contest #187

The cat remained still, almost too still, under the oak tree in my front yard, observing me as it has for the past three days. Siamese, of that I am sure, only because Emmy favored them. Not me. I tolerated them only for her. A dog person myself, I always had one until recently. I only owned one at a time, all King Charles Spaniels, all male (neutered of course), and all named Justin. Always wanted a son named Justin, but it never happened. No daughters either. Just as well, I suppose, Emmy hated that I wanted her named Justine. "Git!" ...

16 comments 16
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“Kitty and the Alien” by Ann Miller

Submitted to Contest #187

    Thud! Crash! Meoooow!    What was that? I am used to the sound of my cat thumping about the apartment, but she weighs only eight pounds. Something far heavier made that first noise. I jumped up from my desk in the bedroom and made my way through the usual piles of books on the floor to the living room. Such is the life of a historian.    I thought about the sounds as I moved. Something large crashing into …what? I didn’t have anything nice in the apartment. I couldn’t afford any...

8 comments 8
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“Hannah Finds a New Home” by Wendy Lathrop

Submitted to Contest #187

An early morning sunbeam shone across the grass, making the dew sparkle like tiny round rainbows.  Hannah opened her golden-green kitty eyes slowly and stretched her silky gray front legs out in front of her, yawning wide. Then she noticed she was alone. “Mama! Where are you?” she called, looking quickly from side to side as she struggled to get her sleepy legs to stand. Last night Hannah had been playing in the meadow with her two brothers, chasing lightning bugs while Mama Cat watched the sun set. Hannah had tired and found a soft...

2 comments 2
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“The Old Man’s Family” by David B Fraser

Submitted to Contest #187

  Owen pulled himself up from the overturned truck. His passenger door was face up to the sky and fell closed the moment he was clear of it. He slid down the roof side of the truck into the snow. There was a long gash in his right leg that hurt bad. Why did the old man put up such a fight? From the way the truck had hit the ditch and rolled into the tree and landed on the driver’s side, he knew the old man was dead for sure. Why did he fight? When you have a knife people are supposed to listen to you.   Owen could se...

1 comment 1
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$250

Prize money

324

Contest entries

117

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 03, 2023 EST

Won by Michelle Oliver 🏆

Title: Mitzee’s Moment

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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