A Cat-astrophe

A CAT-ASTROPHE

by Dashiell Moyse

Dedication

This is dedicated to my parents who helped me alot when I needed help and didn't feel confident.

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, Vt

Copyright 2019

“Dad, I want to go see the cats.”

“Sure Kevin, let’s go see the cats.”I was five years old at the time. I was little. We were at the zoo. I loved animals. I used to watch a show called “Animals.” It was a great show which taught me a lot about animals, and for their anniversary episode it taught me about cats and how cool and awesome they are. Sadly enough, I would soon be afraid of them. “Dad, let’s get really close to it. It was amazing. We were looking at a snow leopard. The room was cold to help the snow leopard. But then my Dad said, “Kevin, would you like a better view?”

“Yes.”

Dad gave me a better view, but at the moment there was a big noise from one of the gorillas on the other side of the snow leopard’s cage. My Dad got a little shook by the sound. He accidentally dropped me into the snow leopard’s cage. Then the snow leopard jumped at me and in that moment he made a really terrifying face. Thankfully my Dad climbed the cage and started punching the snow leopard. I escaped but my Dad got bit in the leg. He was okay for then. Five years later when I was ten years old he died. The snow leopard had rabies a disease. I didn’t know.

20 years later

I’m walking into Animal Studies. I’m going to see some scientists who are trying to help lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars. Their mission is to help them because they’re endangered and we want to help them. You might be wondering why would I want to do this. It’s because I love cats and also one of the guys who worked on that tv show, well he's the main scientist. And I always looked up to him. As a father- like figure. His name is Nate. I enter the animal studies lab, and Jimmy yells out,

“Welcome Kevin, are you here to see the cats?”

“Yes, I am” I say.

I enter the lab and there are the cats in cages. Also because of that snow leopard thing when I was little I have ailurophobia, the phobia of cats. I take a deep breath. “Okay let’s do this.”

“Kevin, how are you doing?” asks Jimmy.

“Good”, I say. “So what's wrong with these animals?“

“Don’t know,” says Jimmy.

“Well, good thing they’re in these cages or else they would eat us.”

A voice is heard from inside the office.

“We are shutting this place down! We're gonna move the cats to different cages away from here.”

Another voice from the office yells, “No, you are not!“

“Yes, we are!”

A man in a business office storms out of the office. We’ve never seen him before.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Brad. I work for a corporation that cares about animals as much as you do.”

That's a lie,” says Nate.

“You are just here to stick our animals into a zoo! “ says Nate

“Anyways,” says Brad, “we are going to take the cats.”

One of his workers opens the cage to get the leopard. It jumps out. “Oh no!” said Nate, “all the cats have escaped. Kevin go after that leopard.”

Me and Jimmy run out the door into a zoo. The Leopard is there. It looks straight into my soul. I run straight towards it. It runs away into the reptile exhibit. We chase after the leopard. The leopard is so fast we are getting a serious workout. Finally we see it. Remember how I said I’m afraid? I was so afraid I tumble over the guard rail and I fell into the crocodile pit. I quickly grab a branch. The Crocodile was right below me.

I’m hanging onto a branch. It starts to crack. I anxiously look for something else to climb on. It snaps again. Thwomp! The leopard hits the floor.

Jimmy yells, “I got the leopard with a tranquilizer dart.”

“Um, Jimmy, that's great and all but can you help me?” “Where are you?” says Jimmy.“Over the ledge.” Jimmy looks and sees me. My branch cracks again. The crocodiles look even hungrier.

“Hold on,” says Jimmy. He grabs a vine and he throws it over the ledge. “Use this to get up”. I grab onto the vine. Then the branch that I was hanging on breaks. Good thing I got off. I climb onto the guard rail. Then I get a call from Nate.

“Kevin, the tiger is at the hardware store,” says Nate.

“We’re on our way, Nate”.

“Okay good. Be careful. This is a tiger we’re talking about. Be cautious,” said Nate.

“Got it.”

We get to the hardware store and the workers are screaming. Jimmy pulls out his tranquilizer dart.

“Wait, he's too far away to get a shot. Let’s get a little closer.”

We creep up to it. Jimmy decides to take his shot. He misses. The tiger growls.

“Run!”

The tiger chases us. We run into the truck and drive away.

“That was close.”

“I know, right?”

We suddenly realize that we needed to get the cat. We go back to the hardware store. The cat is gone.

We meet Nate at the lab. The leopard is back in its cage

“Where's the tiger?” says Nate.

“ We didn’t get him,” I say.

Nate looks like he is about to explode.

“Come into my office now!”

“Okay, sir.”

Once we get into Nate’s office we feel his wrath.

“How did you two lose the tiger?”

“We ran away,” says Jimmy.

“You two are cowards,” said Nate.

Ring ring. Nate picks up the phone. “Yes, I know. Wait, what- it’s at the dock- I’ll get my men down there now.”

He puts down the phone.

“If you two don’t want to get fired I suggest you get the tiger down at the dock”, says Nate.

“Okay,” says Jimmy. We drive to the dock. People are even jumping in the water to get away from the tiger. Jimmy goes to grab his tranquilizer dart except he forgot it. The tiger starts to chase us. We run. On the dock I frantically look for something to stop the tiger with. I finally find a rope. I try to lasso the tiger cowboy style. It latches on the tiger’s leg but he keeps going. Suddenly I’m being dragged by the tiger, around the dock.

“Help!” yells Jimmy.

I grab onto a piece of wood that's stuck in the dock. The tiger stops but he’s still trying to run. I feel like my arm’s going to fall out of its socket. Suddenly the dock starts to break. Apparently the thing I’m holding onto supports the whole dock. Jimmy jumps onto the land. The dock breaks. The tiger starts to swim. Did I forget to mention the tiger is the only cat that swims? But I can’t swim. I feel like my lungs are filling up with water. I guess this is the end of me. Then suddenly my whole world goes black. The next time I wake up I’m in a hospital. (I know this because there's a doctor in front of me.)

“How long have I been out?”

“Three hours,” the doctor says.

“ Is the tiger captured”.

“ Yes, it is,” says Nate as he comes in the room.

“ But while you were in this state we have a new guy to hunt down the animals. His name is Doug”.

“Hi,” he says as he appears out of nowhere.

“ Is Jimmy still on the mission?”

“Yes, he is,” says Doug.

The next thing that happens is Doug and Jimmy are hunting down the Jaguar. They don’t know where it is but they think it’s at the factory. But then again they’re not sure.

“Let’s see if the jaguar’s in the factory,” says Jimmy.

When they go into the factory. “It’s dark,” says Doug.

“Yes it really is.”

Suddenly a guy from the shadows appears. “Who’s there?” says Jimmy.

“I’m Brad¨ he says.

“How did you get here Brad? Oof.” Jimmy is knocked out.

“Thanks,” says Brad.

At the hospital

“Ugh, I need to help Jimmy,” I say to myself. “If he doesn’t get the cats in time Nate will probably fire him.”

“Kevin,” says Nate.

“Jimmy’s not responding on his walkie talkie. You need to find the rest of the cats and find Jimmy.”

“ Wait a minute. Why is he not responding?”

“I don’t know,” says Nate

“But we know where the lion is.”

“Lion oh no oh no no no no I’m not going after the lion.”

“You have to.”

“Alright but where is it?”

“At the highway.”

“Okay.”

Once I get there everyone's screaming. I was sure to bring my tranquilizer. The lion runs at me. I shoot and miss the shot. I try again. Miss. Another miss. Then I run out of ammo. I run. I look for a way to stop the lion. I can’t find anything. Then the worst thing that could happen. I trip. It all happens in one moment. I don’t know what happened; one moment I’m running, the next I’m on the floor. It happens so fast. I turn around. There it is ready to eat me. “Hi,” I put my hand out. It licks it. Suddenly I’m not afraid of cats. I don’t have ailurophobia. Then a car pulls up. It’s Nate’s. “Did you get it?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, go to the factory. That’s where the Jaguar is.”

I get to the factory. I keep on looking around. I find Jimmy's wedding ring on the floor next to Doug’s ID. Wait a minute- Doug knocked out Jimmy and took away Jimmy. Wait a minute. This means Doug must be working for someone, but who? I need to tell Nate. I rush over to animal studies lab. “Nate, Nate!”

“What?”

“Doug took Jimmy. We need to get him.”

“ Yes, I know. I just figured that out as well. Come with me.” I get into a room with a laptop. Nate plays a video. Brad starts talking on a recorded message.

“Hello, Animal Studies. I have captured Jimmy with the help of Doug. I will give you Jimmy back if you handover the other cats. Yes, I have the Jaguar and until you turn over all the animals all I’ll be giving you is messages. You have twenty four hours. Good luck.” The screen goes black.

“Now, see, I paid someone to hack into this call and we found out that he is in a warehouse near the airport okay.”

“ I’m going to get him.”

At the warehouse there are lots of guards. I sneak past all of them and get into the warehouse and I hear, “Tell us all about animal studies or else I’ll feed you to the cat.” I look over to see Jimmy dangling over the Jaguar’s cage. I quickly turn over and shoot the guy with a tranquilizer as he is about to cut Jimmy. Then Doug grabs me. I get free of his grasp and punch him and knock him out. Then I jump on Brad and knock him out as well and save the day. “ Jimmy,” I cut him down we get the cat and Nate pulls up. “Nice job.” Then we go home finally. I need some sleep. Or that’s what happened in my mind. It actually was a whole lot more complicated. This is actually what happened- “Brad, let him go!”

“Never! He shall be fed to the cat.” I pull out my dart gun. But then I’m bashed on the head. I wake up hanging over the Jaguar. I look at Brad.“You will never get away with this,” says Jimmy.

“Oh but I already have haven’t I, Doug?” He steps out of the shadows.

“Yes, you have, boss.” But then my rope doesn't hold. It breaks. I fall right in but Jimmy misses the cage and lands right next to Doug. One punch. Two punches from Doug. Jimmy looks weak. He grabs the tranquilizer gun from Doug and throws it over to me. I grab it and I shoot the Jaguar. Jimmy is knocked out by the third punch. I jump out of the cage. I punch Doug six times. He looks like he was barely hurt at all. He punches me in the face and it broke at least a bone or two. I punch him in the face with all my might. I knock him out. I think I see a tooth flying out or that might have been mine. I rush down to Jimmy.

“Jimmy, wake up!”

“Ugh. What. Watch out,” says Jimmy. Suddenly Brad’s behind me and he throws a punch. I dodge it and punch him in the face. He wobbles around and falls on my feet. I grab Jimmy and start to carry him. He is heavy. I carry him out of there and then Nate pulls up. “Hey there, Nate, can you help me with Jimmy?”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” Nate pulls out a tranquilizer.

“Wait, you’re a bad guy too?”

“Yes, me and Brad created that TV show just to get money. We then used that money to fund Animal Studies. But first we needed to get the only problem out of our way. Your Dad. He was the producer of the show and once he realized that it was all to get money, he refused to produce it. He was going tell the police that we were going to use the money to do some crazy science experiment until we riled up the gorilla and eventually killed him. Then we had enough money to fund our science experiment that, some guy funded for us we just gave him the money. You see the cats were never endangered. That was all a lie. But they were special. Each cat had some kind of poison in it. We were gonna use that poison in this tranquilizer dart to get other people to fear us. But if we shoot it at you and it hits you, you shall die. That’s what’s going to happen to you.”

I charge at Nate. I tackle him. The dart gun skids across the floor. Nate punches me and grabs the dart gun. I jump on him again and punch him two times and I knock him out. I call the police. The police come pick them up. Well, it was a long couple of days but finally I get to rest. All of them went to Jail but I finally got some sleep.

The End