Writing Prompt

Snowball walked gracefully along the roof. As always, Her paws were meticulously placed, one in front of the other as the occasional car roared by on the damp pavement below. A warm breeze tussled through her perfectly kept fur as she reached the edge of the roof. Looking down below, she spotted a cozy orange light coming from the open window of a long abandoned factory. Snowball jumped down to the fire escape below with expertise before making her way down.

Warm laughter and soft jazz filled her ears as she pushed back the velvet blanket that acted as a door to the main room. The space was compact, glowing string lights littered the walls and at the center of the room, lay the top half of on old barrel currently being used as a table. Around it, a variety of animals sat on variously colored blankets and pillows. “Ah, Snowball!” A farmiliar raspy voice called out to her, followed by other greetings. Hank, a scruffy old wiener-dog, smiled at her “You just missed it! Arlo here was telling us how his human-“ He devolved into laugher before he could finish, “his human he- ah you gotta tell her Ar!” Hank finished as he continued his laughter, next to him, sheldon the turtle was also snickering. Snowball rolled her eyes fondly.

“Lovely to see you boys too,” she commented before looking pointedly at a younger golden retriever as she took a seat on her favorite dark green blanket. “Seems I missed your story Arlo” Arlo, their newest member, looked at her bashfully. “Aw it wasn’t that funny Ms.Snowball, Hanks just overstat’n it” Arlo said pawing at the ground nervously, but still chucking at his own story. Next to him, a brightly colored green and yellow parrot spoke up, “Nah he’s lying Snowy! it’s halarious, go on, tell her Arlo!” He then looked up at her a little to excitedly, “Ok, I-I mean i’ll still tell ya if ya want” Snowball fluffed her blanket calmly before looking at Arlo, “I’d love to hear your story Arlo” she said with a friendly nod. Arlo perked back up, and began to recount the entire tale of how his human sliped down the stairs three separate times that morning in a rush. “An then once he finally got out the door, I was watchin’ out the window right? And I saw him slip again gettin’ on down the front steps!” Arlo finished with a bark and a laugh “I couldn’ even stand right I was laughin’ so hard” Snowball herself was also laughing, though, not nearly as much as hank, despite this being the second time he had heard this story.

The rest of night flew by with anecdotes of the odd, annoying, and funny things their humans were up too. It wasn’t until the sound of bustling cars picked up that one by one, the pets started excusing themselves to leave.

The last two out were Snowball and Hank. With a flick of her paw, Snowball shut off the fairy lights that shrouded their hangout, before turning towards the exit. In his teeth, Hank was holding the blanket that covered the door to the side for her, Snowball thanked him with an elegant nod as she exited, hearding Hank follow behind. Stepping into the dim early morning light, Snowball spoke, “that was very enjoyable Hank, as always.” she said with a nod “Get home safe” Hank gave a warm smile before speaking “Of course Snowball, you take care now- and hey we’ll see you tomorrow right?” Snowball gave him a friendly smile “Of course Hank, I wouldn’t miss it.” With that, snowball jumped back up into the fire escape, ready to head home.

Night creeper Life sleeper Silent peeper Store keeper

The cricket hears when he chirps At night

What the terrier hears in the morning

And the house cat at midday

The Nextdoor iguana asks

“How could he never love, his heart is so big!”turning a deep shade of purple-red

But the cat stays silent and it speaks volumes

So the pet goldfish blurbs a question too

Asking

“How could he never sing

His voice is velvet!”

But the energetic dog narrows his tail, and the animals know the answer

Ridden with confusion, the cocker-spaniel decrees that he is filled with feeling

As all the animals have seen how he helps the grandma in the neighborhood load her groceries

How he hums harmonies heeding harp like sounds in the shower

And how much he cares

For the animals can tell, because they feel

Before they think

And the cricket says he cries at night

And the dog says he sleeps in day

And the cat says in midday

He stares

Because his heart is so big, and his voice so beautiful, and his feelings so sensitive

He stares

And they understood

And so they wept for him

As his eyes were dry

Pet Paradise was the gardens on top of the apartment building. A pet friendly apartment building. You could find so many pets here. Dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, geckos, parrots, and even an albino boa constrictor. They all met every Wednesday night and Friday morning. Well all except Wendy the golden retriever from apartment A116, and Layna the black lab from C126. Both of them needed to sleep with their owners. The one thing that could be sure about Pet Paradise. You would definitely get an earful about humans.

“We can’t wait for everyone,” Damian growled. “Let’s begin.”

His triangular ears cast an eerie shadow on the alleyway. Surrounded by the other neighborhood pets, his aura was demanding, dark. No one dared speak against him or out of turn.

“My owner replaced my food this week with something … healthier,” he said, eyeing a poodle in the front row. “I know that happened to you too, last week, Morris.”

Morris shook their head. “It did, and it’s making me languid.”

“We need to fight against this,” Damian said, his collar vibrating. “We need to treat them as they treat us.”

Cats screeched; dogs barked. They agreed.

“Tonight, when you go home, prepare your claws. Strike your owners. Then flee back here. We can discuss next steps after. The takeover.”

Damian turned with a snarl.

Gumpert, a grumpy old tabby cat with a deep purr that conveys his advancing years stands on the edge of the circle, flanked by a squirrel and an owl.

Two of the other neighbourhood cats sit across from him, closer to the warm glow of the street lamp.

‘Oh just you wait Dasher, it might be ok now but at some point you really do get tired of pretending…….

….It was fine before all of her other cats started to get old and die, but once I came along to replace one of them, she just stopped getting new cats in…….

…..She’d also gotten older and had stopped going out. Now I was all she had. All she has in fact. It’s exhausting. At my age, I don’t want to be there to comfort some lonely old lady, especially now it’s harder to hunt. I rely on her more for food’

Dasher stroked his relatively youthful whiskers

‘Hmm, yes a true Faustian bargain Gumpert’

Bells the hamster

My carer always sleepy doing late from work

Doug the dog

My owner is always on vacation I’m always missing him

Material the kat

My owner lets me out at night but is never at his in the mkt infs

Robin The rabbit

My owner is too busy watching tv moving furniture a strike gives me enough hay though

Rocky, an old pit bull, let out a long, exaggerated sigh before he cleared his breath and announcing that all pups, pooches, kits, cats, and everything in between where to meet at the abandoned warehouse at 7:30 sharp. Rocky’s words traveled through town like a wild fire. Soon, every pet in the city was lined up at the gates of the wear house and slowly making their way inside. Once everyone was seated, Rocky took the stage. “First off,” Rocky examined the audience, “Said 7:30 sharp not 8:20.” Pets groaned and grumbled as they started to complain about their owners making them late. “Now, now,” Rocky said in attempt to clam everyone down, “before we began the annoying-things-my-owner-did chit-chat, I’d like to welcome our newest addition, Scruffy.” Everyone clapped as a way to say ‘Welcome, Scruffy, now can we hurry this up?’ Finally, Eocky cleared the stage indicating that it was time to complain.

Of course, every pet loved their owners dearly, but they did do some pretty annoying and/or stupid things over the course of the day. “My owner threw away the dead bird I left out on the porch for her.” Tabby the tabby whinned to Pixie the dog. “My owner hasn’t fed my today, now that’s just being lazy.” A grump old tortoise cried to a fluffy white rabbit. My owner this, my owner that, it was around round 10:00 when the animal’s complaining came to a slow stop.

“Now,” Rocky proudly called out, “Time to go, everyone meet here again tomorrow. _And on time.” _ _ _Everyone made their way out. Until tomorrow.

Chuck scratched his ear with his half dollar paw and took a long puff from his Cuban cigar before beginning, “Listen up, gang.” Sassy licked her lips and meowed, her antique green eyes focused on Chuck’s jowls, matted with drool, as he continued speaking. “I called you all here today to talk about John as he walked out to grab the mail this morning in his boxers. Did you see the size of that shit stain?!” The room howled with yips and barks. Chuck’s belly hit the poker table as he laughed deeply, spilling chips onto the floor.

“Welcome! Emergency meeting!” Growled Rusty Bulldog. “Our owners have been very naughty!” Barks and growls and mews and chirps filled the old abandoned mansion. “Timmy has been cleaning up my feces from my litterbox,” piped up Poppy Tabby. Three hairless cats agreed. “My owner has limited my millet intake to one branch a week!” Crowed Mich Parrot. Soon, the whole room was filled with angry creatures, bug and small, complaining to anyone that would listen. “…Doesn’t let me out of my my cage because they sleep while I’m awake…” “…Don’t let me sleep with them. I sleep in a kennel.” “…Don’t let me sleep on the counter while they…” “…Not enough treats…” “…No belly rubs…” “…Baby came home one day…”

“Enough!” Bulldog roared. “I see how it is. But it being my job, I have a plan. I have a plan that might just work. All the animals stopped their snarling and yowling and I screaming. Bulldog cleared his throat. “I agree with you all that the humans are a disgrace. They have no right to treat us like this! But we don’t have to let them be mean to us. “When push comes to shove, will shall declare war on them!”