Today Mike Mander had received a letter, written on an old fashioned type writer. Someone wanted a book redrawn, they said something about giving cats a bad reputation. “The Dreaming”, the book was called. A dystopian story of a world were cats ruled, keeping humans as slaves for food and play.
Some crazy cat person for sure, Mike thought. He crushed the paper and threw it in the bin. It was late, he wanted to go home. The sun was going down.
He usually walked home. It wasn’t very far if he took the short cut though the industrial port. There was an old house on the hill. It always had a light on in one of higher windows. The rest of the house was dark. He wondered who was living there.
He passed through an alley. The garbage was piled up on one side. Leftovers from the fishing industry, that much he could smell. There were cats. Disgusting, dirty port cats, digging into the rotting fish and garbage. They looked up when he arrived. Sat there, watching him. He hated cats.
Coming out on the other side he could see someone in the old house, looking down towards him from the window.
A couple of days later he got another letter. It was strikingly similar to the first but a lot more threatening. “Take the book out of the stores today or we’ll kill you.” Hard to misunderstand.
He took it to the police, but they didn’t really seem that interested.
-Don’t worry, the police man said. This happens all the time. We’ll see what we can do, but it’s probably just some kids having fun.
He felt a bit better, and didn’t think much more about it. Though it was the first time it had happened to him, he knew these kind of things occurred in the editorial industry.
I guess I’ll just have to get used to it, he thought.
Some days later he had worked late again, and took the short cut through the docks. There were more cats now. A lot more. Cats everywhere, and they were all looking at him. He started walking faster. Further down the road black cats were coming out from the sides. They blocked the street between the storage house walls. He stopped, turned around. Cats. The whole street was covered with cats.
-Aren’t they beautiful? The voice came from the darkest corner in the alley, behind the containers.
-Who’s there?
-Hahahahaha! Cats… It was the voice of an elderly woman. She didn’t sound too good, her voice was weird and twisted. -The most beautiful creatures in the world. How could anyone ever want to put them down?
-I do not know what you want, Mrs, but could you please tell your cats to let me pass?
Silence.
The cats started jumping down from the containers and the roof. Hundreds of cats staring straight at him in the darkness.
-Such perfect animals. Divine, I’d say.
-Please, lady, I do not know what you… But he did know. The Dreaming. The letters were from her.
The cats moved closer. Slowly, but firmly.
He started walking. He walked into the crowd of cats in front, ploughing his way through the black mass on the ground. The woman was laughing. The cats were hissing, circling him.
One jumped up on his pants, ripping it, climbing up his thigh. He grabbed it, threw it away. Others came. Jumping up from the ground, onto him from the roofs, from the boxes and containers. Cats. Cats everywhere. Crawling all over him, scratching their small, razor sharp claws through his skin. His screams could hardly be heard through the pile of cats covering his body.
The woman walked over.
-That will teach him, won’t it, my sweets. The cats were rubbing themselves to her legs, purring softly. A dark tail followed her up towards the house with light in one window. The rest stayed to finish their meal.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9560048
The Cat Lady strikes. Every neighborhood seems to have one. He should have listened. Good story, thanks!
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Thanks, George. The two external links give some more info on cat ladies 😉
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Will read this during my lunch hour. Can’t wait. Hope you’re doing well! 😉
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Thanks, I am. Working hard 🙂
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Awesome illustration
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Thank you!
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Just a normal day in Catsville. Will the Cat Woman ever find love? She should try a romantic purring story next time, not sure about the cat food though.
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The cat food one have arrange however one can, and she seems to have it under control. She already has love 😉 Check out the external links if you have the time, cat ladies are quite an interesting phenomena.
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Wow I didn’t know cats caused OCD. Great story and art work!
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They carry a parasite meant to make mice attracted to them, and it seems to affect people as well 😀 Thanks!
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Great art. My science teacher was a crazy RAT lady. She had over twenty at her house. Several of which seemed to have the run of the house, according to her. Needless to say we didn’t dissect a rat in her class, only Toads. I wonder if there’s a crazy toad lady out there too? Haha
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There might be, there just might be… Would be quite a character 😀
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Jesus Christ whatever did cats do to you 😛 Great Story, it confused me a little without “” marks but other than that!! 🙂
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They’re evil, I tell you. Evil! Haha! The dialogue style was something I tried out in the beginning of this blog, kind of as a challenge to myself, and it just stayed that way. I might try experimenting with different kinds of marks later, but I kind of like doing it like this, makes me have to find other ways to make sure people understand what’s dialogue and what’s not. But of course, it’s a bit more difficult 🙂
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Ah it’s fine, it’s your style run with it
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Now the marks almost feel like cheating 😀
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You’ve got an interesting site here. Am gonna look around a little. And yes, thanks for following me!
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Thanks! Feel free to look all you want 😉
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Check out my Top Post category, it’s probably a good place to start.
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Sure
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Whoa! Very sad and devastating. I am expecting funny trick or treats not a bunch of cats attacking on the street!
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Let’s hope so 😉
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My youngest son had a girlfriend who had cats (or maybe her mother did, I’m not sure) in his last year of high school — and a bit beyond. He got sick to the point I took him to our family doctor (which isn’t something I regularly do, with a cold or flu). I don’t know how the doctor could tell, but he asked about cats and determined that the illness had to do with the cats. He asked my son if he’d thought about finding a different girlfriend. He hadn’t, but he got treated and later did discover she was a little off. I wonder whether he wouldn’t have been able to fully notice she was “off” if he hadn’t been treated. (I’m not trying to be negative about cat lovers. I like cats… but haven’t had any for many years.) Parasites are gross.
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Especially the mind controlling ones 😀 There seem to be a lot of them in nature, too. One makes fish stupid and swim in the surface for birds to catch them. Then the parasite reproduses in the bird, and goes back to the water the natural way, and so on.
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And the moral of the story is…
psycho people will attract psycho cats for company.
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So it seems… Like the torpedo guy with the pitbull, you have the psycho woman with the killer cats.
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sensational illustration
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Thank you very much
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🙂
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Very imaginative but true, cats can soon turn wild if left unattended!
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I wouldn’t trust one bigger than me, to tell you the truth 😀
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Very wise even kittens can claw!
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Lovely Orvillewrong recommended you to me. He is my Father-in-law and landlord more importantly a Dear Friend. Platonic.
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I must say! Happy to meet you 🙂
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And I, you. 👧
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Are you in the UK?
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No, I’m in Spain 🙂 https://fictionspawn.com/2017/04/22/a-norwegian-guy-living-in-spain-writing-in-english/
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I guess that means you are in the UK?
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Yes. England.
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I ask only because the crazy cat lady’s furry friends reminds me of the cats in an advertisement for Cravendale milk.
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Haven’t seen that one. The story or the illustration?
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I’ll check it out when I’m on Wifi 🙂 Thanks!
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I/we have two cats Claudia small black female (the Boss) Salem large Tabby Not the Boss. (The Mommy’s Boy.).
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Cats are cool 🙂
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They are. I Like your illustrations, as well as your literacy. They compliment each other well.
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I am a Cat Lady though not so terrible ;)….I have three cats but they are rather mild. Great story! No one should mess with the cats ;). By the way, Haruki Murakami’s stories and novels are full of cats and he even has a story about a city of cats. I think you would like his writings. I’m looking forward for more stories!
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Thanks for the tip! I’ll check him out, sounds interesting. Cat’s are amazing creatures indeed, so mysterious, agile and intelligent. They say they where actually the ones to tame us, not the other way around 🙂
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I can vouch for that , I assure you ;). They have tamed us into offering them any place they want, to feed them first in the morning, to give them attention whenever they want and so on ;). They say that cats are the masters of humans and not the other way round.
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Exactly!
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My boss gave me a “crazy cat lady” action figure and it’s sitting on my desk right meow. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
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Intriguing… 😉
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Reblogged this on luna's on line.
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Thank you so much, Chris! 🙂
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I’ll never look at my cats the same way again!
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Haha! You can never know 😀
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A terrifying clowder of cats. They are carnivores after all. 😀 Well done!
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I would prefer not to have a pet cat bigger than myself… 😀 Thanks!
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