The Cats Of St. Pats

• Nina Psaltis, Grade 4, St George Special School -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

The four cats Mikey, Betty, Martin and Amy were sneaky and mischievous. They were also very good at stealing, although they would rather they didn't have to steal.

You see they are alley cats and have no one to look after them.

They steal milk from Saint Patrick's school staff room at night once everyone's gone home.

Sometimes they drink all the milk and the teachers can only have black coffee and tea the following morning. The cats have been sneaking into Saint Pats school every Wednesday night for a long time.

Mikey says that midnight is the best time to sneak in because everything is silent and nobody would be around to catch them, that was until Amy said she wanted to try something a little different tonight.

Amy had heard about the little children attending the school and wanted to see them for herself. She was a gentle cat unlike the others she wanted human attention and more than anything an owner.

"I want to see the children in school playing, learning and reading books." Amy said to the others. All the other cats agreed doubtfully.

Wednesday night came they enjoyed their milk and scurried in different directions throughout the school grounds after hearing a noise.

Betty made a dash to the library where on the shelf she discovered a thick book with the words 'Shakespeare for Cats' written on the spine.

Martin ran to the canteen and found an opened but untouched packet of potato chips and began to dig into them.

Mikey strolled towards the school hall in the hope of finding a little mouse but could only find a small ball and some string.

Amy jumped onto the school roof and curled up into a ball daydreaming that one day she will have a kind owner and soon blissfully fell asleep.

The next morning Chrystal and Holly who are pupils at the school were making their way through the school gates when they noticed something fluffy on the roof.

Just then Amy was woken up with a start by a loud bell. She jumped off the roof onto the landing and noticed Chrystal's kind face and wondered if she could be the one to adopt her.

Amy walked towards her and sat at her feet, staring at the ground. Suddenly a schoolgirl named Bridget yelled out to one of her friends. "Amy wait up".

At that moment Amy looked straight up at Chrystal's smiling face and meowed.

"Amy, your name must be Amy. I spotted you on the roof, my name is Chrystal".

" You look lost, do you have an owner"? enquired Chrystal.

Amy stared sadly at the floor.

"I would love for you to be my cat. I will pop you in my backpack and if your still there by the end of the day I will take you home". Chrystal said excitedly.

Amy gave an enthusiastic meow. MEOWWWWWW.