Catnip raced down the stairs. "Mom! Mom!" Catnip's heart was beating rapidly.
"Did you see a striped ai--um... thing with four ears?"
"You saw it too?" Catnip's mom began.
"Yeah, yeah, where is it?!"
"Oh, John took it to the animal shelter. We figured it was a rare type of
cat."
Catnip rolled her eyes and slammed the palm of her hand into her forehead.
"That's no cat! Do you have a car?"
Catnip's mother sadly shook her head.
"I'm sorry, dear. You'll just have to wait 'till John gets home."
"But, but..." Catnip began, as she sat down at the table. She gave up. She
wouldn't be able to walk to the shelter, because everything was out of reach.
She slumped over and lay down her face onto the warm, aged wood. It reminded
her of happiness and everyone sitting at the table enjoying a nice meal. It
reminded her of home. She didn't want to leave, but all of her pets were back
in Neopia. They belonged there. She couldn't force them to live on earth. It
wouldn't be right.
The sun was shining outside. It as the kind of day where you didn't want to
go outside. Catnip around the once-grassy fields. It was once again not raining
very much, and the land was dried and withered. It was a golden wheat-yellow.
Catnip slid down the wall and sat herself on the ground. She heard soft mewing.
A kitten sneaked out of the tool shed. It was a glimpse of other life. Everything
seemed so new to her.
But while Catnip paid attention to a kitten, not all was well with me. John
whistled a strange tune while I hollered out the windows for Catnip. It seemed
like the longest ride I had ever had, especially since it was in a "tractor."
Where were the Unis?
But I noticed something as John popped a strange object into the tractor.
Suddenly, funny music started playing. It wasn't any of the songs I knew from
Neopia, but hey, this was earth, wasn't it? The singer sounded a lot like John
and Catnip's mother and Catnip's changed voice. It was annoying at first, but
then relaxing.
When we finally stopped, John grabbed hold of me and hopped down from the
driver's seat. I held onto him by his shirt, and wasn't planning on letting
go anytime soon. He opened the door and looked at a lady at a counter.
"May I help you?" She said, before we even made our way to her.
"Yes, m'am. I've got a strange sorta cat here. It's purple and blue and has
four ears. Can that still be a cat?" John held me up to the lady. She had orange
hair that was reaching towards the ceiling.
"Eh, sure," she snapped white gum loudly in her mouth.
She grabbed me uncomfortably under the arms and stuck me in a cage. I remember
this place when we were looking for a new sister or brother in Neopia, but I
wasn't getting abandoned. It was even worse than Neopia. There were large weird
NeoPets that kind of looked like Gelerts but without the bent tail or nice bright
colours. They made terrible noises. There were also the things that I saw in
the photographs.
Even if they looked different, I could tell they were depressed and scared.
We all were. I looked to the next cage and almost jumped out of my skin. There
was one of those things next to me.
"H... helloo," I tried to say.
It stared at me for a second, not blinking. "Mm." It's head turned but then
struck back. It stood up and went into the corner of their cage.
"Wh-what are you!?" It cried. "You're not a cat!"
"It's a long story," I began. I was glad I had someone that talked. "But I
won't eat you. I hate this place. How long have you been in?"
It sighed. "I'm Tom. You're not the only one who doesn't like it. Get used
to it. I've been in here for weeks."
My eyes grew wide, and I lay down. I didn't want to think about anything in
here. I wanted to be back home.
***
My eyelids were squinted. I wanted to think about Neopia. I tried to imagine
I was there, but imagination isn't that great when you can hear sounds of earth
NeoPets in the background.
"Wow! I've never seen this cat before!" I heard a lady say.
I opened one eye. I was staring at a pale lady with fat lips who needed an
appointment at the dentist. She was smiling, which wasn't a pretty sight to
look at, and was holding her hands together.
"M'am!" she cried.
"Is this dah-lin' cutie good for trainin'?"
"What the heck is trainin'?" I asked myself.
"Um..." the lady with tall hair began. "He sure is!"
"Oh yes! I'll take him!"
She looked at me through the bars of the cage and took something out of her
pocket. It flipped open. Many gold medals and blue ribbons were pinned into
the fabric of this lady's wallet-like thing.
"Ya see here little cat? I've won first place in every National Cat Awards.
You get to be my new cat to enter!"
My eyes bulged. So... was this lady actually taking me home? I screamed inside
my head.
The lady with tall hair came over with a key of keys, and flipped through
each one. She stuck the key in my cage's lock and the door swung open. I didn't
want to be somebody's else's pet!
The fatlipped lady started to put her big hands to get me from my cage, and
I backed away. I finally made up my mind. I hopped over her arms and I practically
flew out the cage. I ran as fast as those legs could run, straight up to the
door. I waited for five seconds, although what seemed like forever, because
I could see those ladies coming closer and closer. A man with big cowboy boots
walked in, and I felt like telling him he was me hero. No time.
I sprinted across the hot paw-burning parking lot and headed for the bushes.
The ladies weren't exactly as quick as I was at the time, and the fat-lipped
lady stopped in the middle of the parking lot.
She stomped her feet on the ground with her fists clutched. They walked, slouching
and sweating, back into the glass doors of the Adoption Centre.
I was in between two dried-up bushes and panting when a tractor pulled up.
I didn't think I'd ever be so happy as I was then to see the tractor. Catnip
hopped out and began to run to the door, as did the other ladies.
"Catnip!" I cried, jumping out of my hiding place. She turned, but didn't
see me.
I ran towards the centre of the parking lot. Catnip was overwhelmed. She was
smiling so much she was ready to cry, and she put down her arms.
I hopped into those well-known warm hands. She was ready to squeeze me to
death, except she noticed I wasn't a plushie and loosened up a bit.
She whispered something that made me smile.
"Let's go home."
Catnip slipped me in her carpetbag, stopping at her parents' house. With a
few hugs and kisses and floating handkerchiefs, Catnip was walking again towards
the house where we started at. I had no idea how she had remembered exactly
where we had entered Earth. She stood and thought for a second, putting her
fingers into different shapes and staring through them. I had no idea what she
was doing!
Catnip ran like mad into the air, and I was scared we would hit the upcoming
fence to the back yard. I squinted my eyes, yelling, but before I knew it, we
had stopped. Catnip panted, gasping for breath as I, terrified, opened one of
my eyelids.
It was the same sight as before. The beautiful and delicate faeries, the adored
Faerie Queen at the throne. Our Uni from before raced through the doors and
skidded to a halt before us.
Catnip and I slid onto the back of the Uni, turning our heads to have a last
glance as the Uni once again flew gracefully through the doors.
I awoke to the cosy and comfortably glowing home I had once taken for granted.
I sprinted to the door, reaching my paws out towards the door knob.
Catnip came walking up beside me and she stuck in a golden key through the
door knob's keyhole.
I plopped down on the couch and switched on the TV as if nothing had ever
happened.
This was the placed where I belonged.
The End | 
