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Start or end your story with a cat or another animal stuck in a tree.

Posted in Short Story on Oct 31, 2025

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✍️ 40 stories

The saving of the cat in Iglesia.

Submitted to Contest #327

“Well, nuts,” said Geraldine as she peered out of her bay window with the crown molding, gazing forlornly at her cat Alpha who had gotten himself stuck in one of her front yard’s massive oak trees. “This won’t do.” Geraldine had made it a point to keep her cats as indoor cats, but with a house full of that many cats, one was bound to break away at some point. “Oh, dear,” muttered Geraldine as she walked into the living room, looking for her binoculars to better examine Alpha’s predicament and his undoubted distress. “This won’t do at al...

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Here, Kitty

Submitted to Contest #327

Philip decided to stay in on Friday night which was also Halloween. He planned to catch up on some reading, do laundry and work on his paper. His roommate, Adam, had traveled with the college football varsity team for a game and would not be back until the next day. His dormitory was left empty due to the parties being held at all of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus. Philip returned to his quad from the downstairs laundry area after transferring his laundry from the washer to the dryer. He grabbed the Introduction to Psychology b...

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Cat got your tongue?

Submitted to Contest #327

Cat Got Your Tongue? From the top of the tree is a tangle of branches and different states of yellow leaves catching the sunlight like a yellow canvas splattered with brown and red paint Dog barks one last time, but unfortunately it falls on deaf ears much like the leaves cascade from the gentle fall breeze. Life has always been great for Dog, nothing short of a reality provided by his loving family. He thinks back in his memories with them all the way to his being a puppy. They were always there to support him in his endeavors and to save h...

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In an Instant

Submitted to Contest #327

I am like a shadow, mimicking your every move, I am like a nightmare destroying your dreams, I am like a wolf cloaked in deception, I am a fierce predator stalking its prey. Humans simply know me as a mountain lion, but the forest creatures know me as the deliverer of death. Death is my middle name; no-one ever realizes until it’s too late. They all think “kill or be killed” and they are right in their assumption. Yes, if you run you will survive, but only for now. It does not dawn on them that death always finds you one way or anothe...

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Cat in a Tree

Submitted to Contest #327

Cat in a Treeby Scott Speck1.It was Halloween night, and so windy that he couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t the wind’s roar through the trees that kept rousing him, but instead, his love of the windy weather, itself – a fascination that had brought him, a year ago, to rent this apartment – the attic floor of a quite large, old house, divided long ago into three main floors of apartments. With only thin layers of insulation, wood, and asphalt shingles above him, he enjoyed living that much closer to the sky.By one o’clock, he was finally drifting off...

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Finding a Familiar

Submitted to Contest #327

“Another cat in a tree?” Kendra asks as she approaches Nia.“Yes,” Nia replies with a sigh. “That’s the third one this month.”Nia side-glares at Kendra.“I mean,” Kendra amends her statement, “that’s only three this month.” Then under her breath she murmurs, “so far.”“Why do they all run away from me?” Nia says throwing her arms in defeat towards the tree. The cat hisses and jumps to a higher branch. “Maybe your magic is too powerful for stray cats.” This earns Kendra another side-glare from Nia. Kendra is great with animals, particularly rabb...

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Thunder Inn

Submitted to Contest #327

Thunder InnBy Sarah Clowes Martha Blum had not intended to come out of her motel room that night. After ten and a half hours navigating the two-lane highways of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas in a Nissan Pulsar with her cat, Paul, Martha was ready to take a hot soapy shower, slip into her clean Lion King flannels, watch the news, and collapse into the well-deserved oblivion of sleep. Paul, of course, had other ideas. Paul was a feisty street cat Martha had adopted a few months earlier when one of the secretaries at the small-tow...

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Silly Old Cat

Submitted to Contest #327

The cat crept cautiously along the branch, planting each paw carefully, as if using the knots and whorls of the bark to keep it anchored to the tree. Her mouth was opening and closing, calling for help from the people walking through the park below – some of them dashing to appointments or meetings; others entertaining dogs and children in the cool autumn air. But the sound that came from the animal teetering among the topmost leaves of the tallest tree in the park, was unheard by any below, rushing about their day. Anyone but little Elsie M...

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The rooster's dream

Submitted to Contest #327

The rooster was standing tall, up in the dying tree. The remaining crimson leaves were flowing alongside his golden feathers. His claws were grasping the branch below, excitedly, but not without a tinge of fear in front of the horizon in front of him. Below, the gasps of the farmer and the cries of the hens were desperately trying to reach him, pleading for him to return to the ground. However, he was way too far, both in distance and in mind, staring at a dream he had long forgotten. It all began a few years ago, when he was just a small c...

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Lenin has breached containment

Submitted to Contest #327

I was standing in front of a closed hardware store, checking the ad for the new iPhone, which I probably could not afford, when I was startled by a loud MEEAWWWWW. I decided to investigate. It was a huge British Shorthair cat sitting on top of a tree and singing the song of his people, his gaze pointed downwards. At the bottom of the tree stood one of those fancy-shmancy robodogs, its camera keenly fixated on the cat. What a bully. Technological miracle my ass. I lifted the robodog and shoved it into a trash bin that stood nearby. That’s whe...

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