Alley Cat (Discontinued)

Beginning A New Life

The boy opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn't. Everything was yellowed and desaturated and not at all how he remembered. The concrete walls of the building stretched higher and farther than before, as if they had grown in size—or the boy had shrunk. The strange sight made the boy's head spin. He lifted a hand to his head only to be met with a small, furry gray paw where his hand should have been. The boy jumped back in surprise.

"What in the world?" he said. "This ain't right."

He lifted his other hand. It too was a cat's paw. He turned around and saw that he had the back end of a light gray cat. He figured that his front half must be that of a cat as well. The boy glanced over at the mysterious book, which had fallen open beside him when he lost consciousness. Had the excerpt he read somehow done this?

"Darned hocus pocus," he said. "I'm a kid; I ain't no cat. And if I am a cat, I'd at least expect myself to have brown or black fur, not light gray."

He sighed, sinking against the cold wall.

"I just had to read that book, didn't I?" he grumbled. "Well, now I've gone and gotten myself cursed."

The boy swatted at the book. His claws ripped through some of the pages.

"Didn't mean to do that."

The boy examined his paws. He flexed them, and his claws emerged. Long and sharp—perfect for defending oneself, climbing trees, and hunting. And when his claws were in, he could move sneakily. He had seen many cats stalking their prey by moving slowly and silently. He had always admired that about cats and wished he could do the same when he stole from vendors and pedestrians.

The boy's eyes suddenly lit up. He no longer needed to be jealous of cats. He was a cat. He flexed his paws, practicing extending and retracting his claws. Flex, extend. Relax, retract. The boy grinned gleefully.

"No more days of going hungry for me," he said. "This is gonna be a blast."

The boy made his way to his feet, placing all four paws on the ground. He took a step forward. Walking as a cat was much easier than he had expected. He put one paw in front of the other, like he was walking as a human but with twice as many legs. He sauntered out of the building, his blue pupils constricting into thin slits as he entered the bright, sunlit world.

The town was larger and taller than it had been before. In a word, it was simply more. There were new smells, and the smells the boy recognized were amplified. Cars and people were suddenly louder. The boy heard conversations from a block away as clearly as ones mere feet away from him, and he heard pigeons cooing in the streets and rats rustling in the garbage in alleyways. The boy stood still, taking it all in, his eyes wide and jaw agape.

"So this is how cats see the world," he said, awestruck.

A bicycle bell rang, and the boy leapt back as a bike rushed past him, stirring up wind and dust. The boy sneezed and shook the dust off his fur before being distracted by another sound--a growl. The boy spun around, ears pinned back, back hunched, and fur standing straight up. Was it another stray cat? A dog? The boy heard the growl again, but this time felt something.

It was his stomach.

The boy sighed in relief. "Guess that means it's time to get some food."

But where would he go? There were so many options. The boy could hunt mice or birds, though he felt that was too savage and would take too long. He could steal from vendors, or---

The scent of hot dogs drifted into the boy's nose from near the park. His mouth watered and his pupils widened. This was it. This was what he wanted.

The boy dashed across the street, narrowly avoiding oncoming cars as the traffic lights changed. The boy wasn't concerned with danger; he wanted hot dogs. He ran along the sidewalk, leaping across roads and sliding as he turned from one street to another until he finally saw the fence and trees indicating the park entrance. His heart beat loudly and quickly in his chest as he stopped to catch his breath. Chest heaving, he swiveled his head left and right, hoping to see the hot dog vendor. Alas, all he saw were children playing and adults walking.