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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

“Something To Talk About In Palaio Faliro” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #187

Professor Katopodis had a habit of turning every conversation topic into an academic discussion. He had a feeling that retirement would take some time to get used to. On his first day in Palaio Faliro, a seaside town 10 km south of Athens, his wife suggested he might out go for a walk to clear his head of the 37 years of strife he had endured at the National University.Stepping outside this morning, the first thing he noticed were the oranges. Bright and plump, they littered every inch of the pavement. And then the cats. They lounged in the ...

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“Granny Reyna is Dying ” by Dana Hammer

Submitted to Contest #187

The quality of service has decreased dramatically, ever since Granny Reyna moved into the guest room. Laurice used to wake up early in the morning to fix me my breakfast. This feeding would be followed by petting time on the table, me sprawling leisurely near her laptop, inhaling the rich, bitter scent of her coffee, as she stroked my fur worshipfully. It’s true that she was often distracted by the laptop, and I was forced to redirect her, but overall, she was a faithful servant. Now our mornings are a clusterfuck of groggy stumbling and m...

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“I Am No King” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

Submitted to Contest #187

In the dim gray before dawn, I and mine are kept awake and restless by the bustle and hurry of workmen all around us. They shout to each other, grunting and groaning as they strain against ropes like horses. The skeleton of the great tent is rising at their hands. Small stars of lantern lights bob. Dogs run about barking, some stopping to bark directly at me and mine. I snarl and charge the bars, but the creatures know I am confined, and stand yapping just beyond my reach. Light is spreading in the sky. The sun will soon rise. As darkne...

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“The Ninth Life” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #187

The two black limousines pulled up outside the singular house. She had hired two, because that was the way it was done. That was the way it had always been done, and so she did it that way. She made the arrangements and she gave her instructions, so there was not a batting of one eyelid and no eyebrow arose as she made her dignified way out of the house and climbed into the second of the two cars. She sat rigidly as the two dark cars awaited their cue. There was no movement from her as the cars joined the hearse in a procession to th...

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“Another One Bites The Catnip” by Nadia Silva

Submitted to Contest #187

It was a dark night and a ginger haired man was on his way home from working so late.. The streets were empty and he had a journey ahead of him. Seeing as he missed all the late buses and the trains were closed, he was left with no other option than to walk. He decided to take the backstreets home. It was eerily quiet tonight, the moon was hidden, not guiding anyones path tonight. With a sigh he walked into the dark passage not noticing the intense glowing blue eyes following his movement. As he descended deeper through the alley the more th...

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“The Sacred Curse” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #187

The cat sauntered through the temple. Sauntering in the haughty way only a cat can, but this was haughty sauntering taken to a whole other level. Temple cat level.When the cat sat, it was evident why the Egyptians of old held a special place for its kind. Revered, divine beings, placed on the Earth to remind people of what awaited them in the next life. How that reminder worked on a detailed level was left to a lot of interpretation and divination. A job left to the learned and devout temple priests.The cat’s aloofness afforded it an invisib...

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“My mother, Gertrude” by Liliana Carlomagno

Submitted to Contest #187

Gertrude just can’t say no. So when the homeless man outside Joe’s Coffee Shop asked Gertrude for some cash for food, she found herself agreeing before even checking to see if she had cash on her. As luck would not have it, Gertie in fact didn't have any cash. That’s how she ended up in front of the rusted ATM machine, across the street from Joe’s, behind the hookah lounge. The ATM was conveniently nestled between two dumpsters. Above Gertie the sun was hidden in the clouds, wind whipped her short blonde hair, as she struggled to ge...

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“The Wound” by Scott Skinner

Submitted to Contest #187

His dirty fingernails made flakes of the raw skin surrounding the puss-filled crater above his ankle. Like a bitch in heat dragging her backside across the yard, he scratched the itch. His fingers became wet with a viscous mixture of blood and puss. He was sure that the antibiotics to cure his staph infection hadn't worked; the bowl-shaped depression was becoming larger, and the swelling of his chaffed skin around the wound would soon burst like a volcanic fissure and consume more of his leg. Don't lose sight of the long game by reveling in ...

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“Vengeance Served Cold” by Timothy Rennels

Submitted to Contest #187

VENGEANCE SERVED COLD " Am I not Bar-Tigar, lord of all lands I roam?" He looked down at the pulsing red jets that spurted from the throat of the boar. " I honor you by taking your flesh and freeing your spirit, continuing the circle." He lapped at his still twitching prey, curved hooks pointing towards his throat, called papillae, coated his tongue, ripping off layers of hide and flesh with each pass. The tender pork exposed was a delicacy he could not resist. Holding its body do...

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“Soaked in Betrayal” by LEVI WOOD

Submitted to Contest #187

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”(William Blake)Click!Miles stirred and looked up as a guard tapped a little silver key across the bars. As much as he wished he’d been asleep, he hadn’t. He had another night of pacing in his cell until he became so weary that he collapsed onto the floor. He spent most of his time like that. Neither asleep nor awake, just drifting. Nothing to do, nothing to say.The others didn’t have that struggle. They yelped and screamed whenever someone walked by. When there was nobody else ...

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

Submitted to Contest #187

Maron Makes his Escape. Battle at the Swindle. Breakfast. Rounding from the back, Maron tightened a rope and secured it to an anchor in the wagon. Huddled in Taika Maru’s cage, Elina Hogsbreath cradled Benzie’s limp, unconscious body and contemptuously glared at Maron. “You should get used to that cat shelter,” Maron smiled slyly, lifting a trunk from the ground and sliding it onto the wagon. Resting against it, he gestured to the inn. “Think of it as your home away from home.” Elina scowled, “This ain’t over, scoundrel.” “Scoundrel,” Pip re...

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“Black Sheep Beyond the Balustrade” by Carina Caccia

Submitted to Contest #187

A small crowd gathers on a flight of stairs by the river, by the food carts and their blinding white lights; the ping of a bottlecap can be heard as it hits the pavement, the shrill of gas as a can is opened, and the crumple of a plastic chopstick wrapper. A man in his twenties stands with his back to the river, a microphone before him. The streetlight paints his black hair with white streaks like rivulets, like moonlit water. He cradles his guitar lightly in his arms, rocks it back and forth as though singing it to sleep, and as his fingers...

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“Miscom-mew-nication” by Philippa Hibberd

Submitted to Contest #187

Great, just great. A mere misunderstanding, and now I was here of all places. “You say Artemis isn’t settling in well?” Strong hands gripped me, stopping my bid for escape off of the table. I wriggled and hissed, letting both people present know in no uncertain terms what I thought of this entire farce. “Easy there, poppet, nobody’s going to hurt you.” Poppet? I flattened my ears. How dare that strange-smelling lady call such a majestic being as myself by a name so demeaning? And nobody was going to hurt me? Like I hadn’t heard that one ...

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“Our Poppy” by Jane Jackson

Submitted to Contest #187

Part 1: Six months ago – The Cheetah in the Garden “I've seen the kitten again,” Jim said. How many times had he made this announcement over the last two or three weeks? Yet I'd still to catch sight of the creature, despite hearing its pleading cries on a couple of occasions when I’d taken stuff out to the compost heap. --------------- “Mew, mew!” A tiny head with wide frightened eyes stared at me from behind an old oil drum. Cautiously placing a little dry cat food on a piece of slate, I took a step back and watched as the kitten sniffed th...

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“Feed the Cat” by Ian Gonzales

Submitted to Contest #187

“Did you feed the cat?” “Yes, Dad. Doing it right now.” Felix crouches on the floor nearby, his back humped up and his trunk-like legs tucked under his rounded mass. He looks more like a hairy toad than a cat. His ice blue eyes stare at me impatiently, like he doesn’t get why I can’t do this one thing fast enough for him. Shaking my head, I scrape out the can of tuna. It’s just cheap canned tuna, but it was hard to find. The country is falling apart. World War III was bound to do that. What’s left of the media calls it a “limited” war, like...

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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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