Saving The Alley Cats - A Short Story
A little while ago, I wrote a little short story 
I thought I'd share it if you want to read something 
Perhaps you will be inspired to write something like it in the future Anyways, here it is:
Saving The Alley Cats - A Short Story
Pit pat pit pat. The rain didn’t seem to stop splatting on the copper roofing, even as the darkness closed in. Charlotte waited for it to stop, the glowing moon seeming to reflect her thoughts on her almost pale, glistening face. Charlotte Elizabeth Knight, to be precise, though she was just called Charlotte by her father and her few friends, as she was very much an introvert. She was rather impatient for a nine year old girl, daughter of a wealthy father, just waiting for the rain to stop. Oh, how poor the cats must be, she thought, tucking her long blond hair behind her ear. With almost nothing to protect them from the rain, except for their fur and the overhanging roofs of the alley way. Time seemed to scratch into an eternity. At some point, she thought, I’ll just have to put on my rain jacket, I guess. Charlotte, unlike her father, who loved to be in the wilderness, wasn’t, to put it simply, one of those people like her father. She loved to play with the alley cats every night, when her father wasn’t awake, for he didn’t like her going out in the city alone, afraid that something bad would happen to her.
At last, after what had seemed like years, though it had only been around three minutes, the rain slowed down to a drizzle, and Charlotte decided to put on her cartagena and crept ever so silently down the stairs. Everything seemed to be going to plan. Charlotte, in her hope to be quiet, stepped down one step, and listened. And another. But when she reached the bottom step, she forgot to skip it, and a loud creak seemed to be able to wake the whole universe up. She waited, frightened that her Dad would find her. After a few seconds, she scurried into the kitchen, got a container of beef, one of her favorite foods, for the cats also enjoyed it, to feed to the alley cats. As Charlotte creeped back to the front door and put on her favorite pairs of shoes: high-heeled, dark brown in color, with a black border and black laces, she heard a loud grunt from upstairs. Her father had rubbed his eyes awake and heard her.
As he started coming down stairs, too quiet for Charlotte to notice, for she was quite in a hurry to go outside, Charlotte went outside, and she ran like the wind, down the patio and out of her large property. Little did she know that her father had come outside to see where she was going. He caught sight of her as she was about to turn the corner onto Park Street, where they lived, and he decided to chase after her and see what was wrong. He had heard her many times before, from creaks of the door to her going down the stairs, though he had never realized that it had been her. He had often woken up, feeling a presentiment that someone was robbing their house, but when he had called “Hello?” his voice had always echoed off the ceiling and walls of his room, no one answering him.
Her father ran towards Charlotte down Park street, making sure to keep a good distance between them so that she would not see him, turning left on to Pine Point road, until they reached the little alleyway where Charlotte would always find the alley cats hiding in the shadows, waiting for her. When she turned the corner, she looked around the alley, and there came her favorite companions sprinting towards her from out of the shadows. They just kept coming, and Charlotte only felt more elation. Charlotte led the cats down the alley, near the end, where a large pile of trash had been piling up for probably since the dinosaurs had gone extinct. It smelled like rotten fish that had been cooped up in a backpack for way too long, as if the fish had just been dumped out onto the trash, but intensified by one thousand times. She wanted to make sure that on one could see her, for she was scared of what might happen to her and the cats, so she was well concealed by the shadows and very vigilant.
Meanwhile, Charlotte’s father was panting, rather similarly to a dog, quite hard, and was trying to find where Charlotte had turned. He heard a faint voice, though more of a quiet whisper that seemed to be carried with the wind, and a few meows, and decided to investigate. As he neared the meows, he seemed to hear more of them, and he quickened his stride to see what was happening. When he saw Charlotte with so many cats, he gasped, so surprised that at what he had just seen. Worried that Charlotte had heard him, he quickly stepped back behind the corner so that he would be concealed. Charlotte, however, heard something and turned to look at what she had heard, but after staying quiet for a few moments and hearing nothing except for the sound of a few cars driving by in the distance, she decided that it must have just been her imagination. After playing with the alley cats, petting every single one and making sure they all had gotten fed, Charlotte got up to go. The cats followed her, jumping playfully on her until she had almost reached the exit of the alley. With a final goodbye and a few doleful look towards the alley cats, she left the alley and sprinted off towards her home. She didn’t notice her father for the only light illuminating the street were the street lights, and even then, everything seemed to be concealed by shadows. Charlotte’s father kept a good distance from Charlotte, while thinking hard about what he had just witnessed.
That night, Charlotte pulled out her favorite book,The Cat in the Cat by Dr. Suess, from her shelf consisting primarily of textbooks from school, as she was a student. She often skimped on reading the textbooks, for she was not at all a proponent for the idea of having to go to school. In fact, she almost abhorred going, for all school seemed to be was that you listen to lectures, write papers, and then you don’t get anything out of all that time you just wasted, and much less did she like the idea of homework.
When her fatigue finally forced her sparkling, teal eyes closed, she very quickly fell asleep, ignorant of the fact that her father had seen her. It was like a dream to her, to be able to play with her beloved cats, and be able to understand their feelings and communicate with them. It was almost like her favorite movie, A Talking Cat!?!
After sweet dreams of the rotund alley cats having plenty to eat and cuddling with them, Charlotte woke up, rubbing her eyes awake with a loud yawn as she looked out the window. It was still dark, though the sun had started to peek over the horizon. Dreamily, Charlotte put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and stumbled out of her room, down the stairs, and started towards the dining room for breakfast.
Charlotte, unaware of what her father had seen the previous night, skipped happily towards the table, as her father, deep in contemplation, studied Charlotte’s smooth perplexions scrupulously, before saying, “Charlotte?”
Charlotte, a little startled by her father’s voice, deep in contemplation, looked at her father with a worried expression. “Yes?”
“I think that, maybe, if you want, we can adopt those alley cats. I mean, it’s up to you, of course,” he continued a little more softly. “I think I owe it after all you’ve been through, you know, losing your mother and all.”
Charlotte widened her teal eyes with fright, half worried by how much her father seemed to know, half happy about the offer. She took a step back, examining her father up and down before breaking the awkward silence. “Sure?”
Her father finally seemed to understand Charlotte’s love for the alley cats, and remarked more confidently, “I guess that’s a yes. Come with me to pick up the cats. They must be waiting for you to come visit them.”
Charlotte was a little worried, for she wasn’t sure whether the cats would like her father. After a little thinking, an idea rang a bell in her head. “Can I visit the cats first and see if I can get them to come with me? I’m worried that they wouldn’t like you.”
After looking off at the ceiling and thinking for a little, for he was still scared about her going outside alone, he nodded his head slowly before saying, “Okay.”
“Thanks.” Charlotte said, trying to understand her father’s concern. And with a nod from her father, Charlotte sprinted off into the dawn, until she turned the corner into the alley way. There, she saw the little cats, purring in delight when they saw her. She had brought them chicken this time, a meat that she knew was one of their favorites. After stroking their silky hair and they had all had a chance to cuddle and eat, Charlotte beckoned them to come with her. At first, they were reluctant to do so, but once Charlotte picked up and waved the now almost empty container of chicken around, one of them started slowly and vigilantly walking towards her.
After much perseverance, Charlotte managed to get them to follow her, though occasionally, one would stop walking and she would need to give it something to eat, which would just make the other cats want treats too. Eventually, she managed to have the cats defer to her and follow her as they slowly but surely made it back home.
Upon their arrival, Charlotte’s father welcomed them with a smile on his face. He tucked a strand of Charlotte’s hair behind her ear, beaming at her. Charlotte let the cats run around, though they stayed near Charlotte, not sure who Charlotte’s father was.
After much purring and petting, the cats who had once belonged to the dark alley became close companions to Charlotte and her father. Charlotte’s perseverance paid off, and in the end, she helped other lives become better and though what she did was small, if everyone could save the life of another, our planet could be a much better environment for everyone, right?
Perhaps we can all learn a lesson for this story 
Let me know what you think!
