Short Stories

The Cat

Sunshine Animal Shelter is a place that ironically, is not filled with sunshine. In fact, there happens to be a constant grey cloud flying above the small detached grey building that is surrounded by bright colored buildings. The shelter has a burgundy roof that doesn’t compliment the building at all, a row of neatly trimmed bushes with blood red roses because the owner of the shelter strongly believed it would add some ‘beauty’ to the shelter and two medium-sized windows, one for the owner of the shelter and the other for people to see the rows of cats stuffed in each cage. Mrs. Patty, the owner, is a nice old lady with a short temper like no other, she had long grey hair that was always in a tight bun and warm mocha brown eyes that fits the smile wrinkles imprinted on her face. She has a small frame that can surprisingly intimidate the toughest and scariest of men. It was around 1:00am in the morning and Mrs. Patty decided to stay at the shelter to finish some paper work, she was in the middle of approving the volunteer application of a nice 18 year old girl when she heard a soft knock. The knock was so soft and so quiet, Mrs. Patty wasn’t even sure she heard it, since she was at that age of losing her hearing and sight, until she heard it again. Frowning she got up, wondering why someone was knocking on the door at this hour. A little terrified of what was on the other side of the door, she opened it. Mrs. Patty’s frown deepened when she saw nobody there… but a little box. The little box began to move and doing the only sensible thing any old lady that was alone in a building late at night would do, she grabbed the nearest object, a broom, to use as a weapon. She poked the box and the box began to shuffle some more until a sad ‘meow’ came from the box. The old lady huffed and thought ‘I got all  worked up for nothing just because some guy wanted to get rid of their cat’. Picking up the box, she slammed the door closed and sat the box on her desk to see what poor unfortunate cat got the boot out of its home. Inside she saw the most beautiful small kitten that had a nice shade of blue and grey and when the kitten opened its eyes to look at Mrs. Patty she almost melted. Mesmerized by that cats blue and green Heterochromia (two different colored eyes) Mrs. Patty smiled. “This beauty is going to get a home quickly”. But she couldn’t help wonder why this beautiful mysterious kitten was so abruptly abandoned.

    And Mrs. Patty was right. The very next day the kitten was adopted and named Shai by a man named Dr. Steiner, a man loved by all except Mrs. Patty. Mrs. Patty couldn’t stand Dr. Steiner and she couldn’t understand why anybody loved that man, especially Martha. Those two were completely different, Dr. Steiner is a short fat man that always wears clothes that are clearly too small for him causing him to waddle like a duck, he is ghastly pale with black eyes and black toupee that flips up like Donald Trump’s hair, and a chubby face with rotten rat teeth that always smells of stale cigars, while Martha is a tall graceful woman with tanned skin, grass green eyes and short light brown hair. She would dazzle people with her warm smile and wonderful personality. Yet, they got married and Mrs. Patty will never understand, but the rumor of it being an arranged marriage always came to mind. Mrs. Patty will never trust that man because she knows behind that nice facade and money, there was a cruel twisted man and Mrs. Patty was usually right.

      After Dr. Steiner finished signing the adoption papers, he roughly grabbed Shai and shoved her in the backseat, grumbling something under his breath while Shai had hissed at him in anger and confusion. After about 30 minutes they arrived at a very large and beautiful white and turquoise mansion with a long drive way that was surrounded with different types of flowers that were obviously cared for by the planter, a beautiful working water fountain, and an outdoor Canopy swing. The car came to an abrupt stop and Dr. Steiner struggled to get out of the car, opened the backseat door to grab Shai and then headed inside the glorious mansion. Once they got inside there was a beautiful chandelier hanging above them with a nice marble floor, shining golden walls and a giant red velvet staircase straight ahead. “Martha!” Dr. Steiner shouted. “what!?” as soon as feminine voice replied Martha walked out of the many rooms and when she got close enough to Dr. Steiner had she seen Shai and gasped. Dr. Steiner smiled in satisfaction and said “her name is Shai. I know you are lonely when I am at work, so I bought an animal to make you happy. “Martha looked her husband in anger and shock but then looked at kitten and sighed. “Thank you”.