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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Your character comes across a stray (dog, cat, human — any kind of animal!). What happens next?

Posted in Short Story on Feb 14, 2025

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✍️ 58 stories

“Sammy's Dog” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #290

“Oh, but he’s adorable. We can’t just leave him here,” said Sammy, crouched beside the dumpster in the alleyway at the back of our tenement building.I’d caught a glimpse of the thing earlier, and figured it was half dead, dying, and would be dead by now on account of the bitter Chicago cold, but apparently not.  I pretended I was deaf.“Poor thing!” said Sammy, who looked up at me. There was no escape. I was forced to acknowledge the dying thing’s existence, but I could only go so far, lest the concession appear a wea...

21 comments 21
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“Symphony on the Streets” by John Rutherford

Submitted to Contest #290

This is a story about stray cats, or stray animals in general. The narrator tries to explain their lives from an eyewitness or philosophical viewpoint. The word Ba has a collective meaning for human beings and their world.************************************************************Venus stretched out her furry legs and paws, with the feeling of absolute freedom and happiness. These are words to describe a state of mind in the Ba world, a comparable feeling Ba might experience. Although Ba goes to great lengths, to find it, teach th...

21 comments 21
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“A Little Bit Of Everything” by Thomas Wetzel

Submitted to Contest #290

"With his back against the San Francisco trafficOn the bridge’s side that faces towards the jailSetting out to join a demographicHe hoists his first leg up over the rail…A phone call is made and police cars show up quicklyThe sergeant slams his passenger doorHe says ‘Hey Son, why don’t you talk through this with me’‘Just tell me what you’re doing it for?’Oh, it’s a little bit of everythingIt’s the mountains, it’s the fogIt’s the news at six o’clockAnd it’s the death of my first dogIt's the angels up above meIt’s the song that they don’t sin...

44 comments 44
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“The Platypus” by Orwell King

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #290

Humans love their scripts.Get born. Go to school. Work. Pay bills. Die. Maybe squeeze in a holiday if you’re lucky. And if something shows up that doesn’t fit the narrative—something like, say, a talking platypus—you shove it in a box labeled ‘Crazy’ and move on.It takes most people years, decades even, to change their way of thinking. Catastrophes, miracles, life-shattering events. For me, it was a gray Thursday afternoon at the park. And the words:“The beak isn’t even the weirdest part of me.”I’d been happily enduring my burnt, lukewarm co...

16 comments 16
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“NAMELESS” by Viga Boland

Submitted to Contest #290

***mild suggestion of child abuse*** Grazyna wandered down the deserted street. There were no children around. It was too early yet, she decided, for the Australian mums to let their children play outside after school and most Australian fathers were probably still at work. In Grazyna’s case, neither parent was at home. Amongst other names her Australian classmates called her, they dubbed her that foreign “latch-key kid”, and their mums were reluctant to let their darlings play with her. After all, you never knew about these European im...

26 comments 26
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“Tijuana at Five” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #290

Words woke me and I looked up through the smell of car mustiness and petrol to a smiling moustache on a strange face. I was still curled in the darkness of the backseat and didn’t know if it had been on a long drive or if we had arrived in Mexico. I didn’t know if I was awake but I did know that we were sitting still now with the engine still vibrating. The moustache man wore dark glasses under a slouchy light brown military kind of hat with a shiny bill. I saw brown skin and a smile but he was just a blur with a background of glaring lights...

3 comments 3
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“Speaking In Minor Keys” by Steve Mowles

Submitted to Contest #290

The small diamond in Diana’s nose reflected the lights from oncoming traffic as her pickup moved slowly north on Highway 160. Hot air rushed through the truck past her damp brown arms. It was past 9 pm and still hot enough to make a rattlesnake sweat. Her long brown ponytail fluttered towards the open window as she shifted into third gear. Her leg clung to the seat as she let out the clutch.Up the road a lonesome hitchhiker heard her shifting gears. An overture of crickets took his mind off his problems. No job, no girlfriend and nowhere to ...

8 comments 8
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“Hiding in Plain Sight” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #290

Going nowhere, parked up, hands resting on the steering wheel, I listened to the rain dancing on the car roof. I watched bright droplets shimmer on the windscreen wiped dutifully away by the repetitive ker-thup of the wipers. Beyond, the lighthouse rose like a giant white chess bishop surrounded by cloudy sky and overlooking the crash of the waves along the pebbled beach. I broke the trance my mind was sinking toward, released the wheel, flicked the wipers to neutral and turned off the ignition. I stared at the dangling keychain, carefu...

4 comments 4
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“Coffin Corner Chunk: North Atlantic” by Bob Banel

Submitted to Contest #290

Coffin Corner Chunk: North Atlantic!It's another Captain Billy Chunk Adventure!Get ready to keep your bunk light on well into the off watch as you read along!Cast off all lines fore and aft! Here we go!CHAPTER ONE: Hair of the Black Dog that Bit Them!There was a chill in the air on a blustery October night. The freight train had arrived at the end of it's run at a town somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard. Broken clouds scudded across the sky. The lonely face of the full moon made a cameo appearance as if woken up by the commotion . It's light ...

1 comment 1
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“Pastries” by Jasper Ashs

Submitted to Contest #290

The rain downpours, hitting my umbrella with thumps. Weaving my way around downtown in search of my car. The smell of pastries wafts from the brown bag by my side, forever at the perfect temperature, just waiting for me to devour them. I know the alley to my right has no shop there, just a little unused dead end, but I glance anyway, the movement instinctual. Despite the dark storm clouds above and the rain obscuring my vision, I see the furry lump hidden in the corner of the alley. It's an animal, but what kind? Slowly I creep forward, givi...

2 comments 2
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“To Save a Life” by Odiseo Quintin

Submitted to Contest #290

Ten miles north of the capital of the Mexican State of Baja California Sur lies the dumping ground of the city’s unwanted canines. This neighborhood grew as a newer extension of the concentrated mid-city development of La Paz that was first explored during a visit in 1535 by Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés. This still unpaved subdivision was named “El Centenario” after a Mexican gold bullion coin first minted in 1921 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mexico’s independence from Spain. Because of the quieter environment and the larger par...

2 comments 2
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“Bell” by Ralph Aldrich

Submitted to Contest #290

The spring rain falls unnoticed. Eli remains motionless by his wife’s grave, feeling empty. Since they first met fifty years ago, it has just been the two of them. At the time they wed, both of their parents had already passed away.   They never had children. However, they never had any regrets because they had each other and were very much in love.They worked in education, Eli, a college professor, Margaret, a high school teacher. Both taught history, leading to traveling to many places they taug...

5 comments 5
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“Just The Dogs” by Jerry Janiec

Submitted to Contest #290

JUST THE DOGS          by     Jerry Janiec                                                                   Looking out the kitchen window, across the...

2 comments 2
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“Lobo's Assignment” by Christopher Ball

Submitted to Contest #290

As the youngest of four siblings, Charles had always secretly felt like the unspoken favorite in the family—as if he held the fondest place in his parents’ hearts. His father had passed when he was still a young man, and now that his mother had lost her battle with failing kidneys, he found himself struggling with the unfamiliar weight of feeling like an orphan. Sitting on the front porch of his central Texas home, he wondered where good old Church of Christ ladies went when they died. He had never truly valued faith—not since his early days...

2 comments 2
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“Elvis: A Story of Love and Loss” by Sandra Moody

Submitted to Contest #290

Della wished to die at home surrounded by her husband, family, and friends. In those days, Della and Tom gazed proudly on their five daughters. But every once in a while, they would remind each other of their one son, Elvis. And there would not have been Elvis if it wasn’t for Aspen, the youngest of the five. May was the picture perfect time of year in North Idaho. Purple lupines blanketed the high canyon walls. Grass, lemon green, sprouted lush from last year’s dead growth. The sun rode high in a bright, azure sky, and spring fever lod...

12 comments 12
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