Cream Puff and Jaws

Cream Puff sat in a purring ball on her favorite bed, her owner’s favorite book. When she was asleep, she looked like a small--and extremely fluffy--toy. This toy was probably a toy cream puff of a toy ball of fur. The misshapen lump of fur that was Cream Puff then stirred, yawning sleepily.

She looked around her. Her owner was sound asleep next to her, waiting to finish reading chapter 10 of her book. Cream Puff stretched and blinked away the golden rays of sunshine that radiantly lit the window and steamed int the room, as if it were a fast-flowing river.

The hardwood floor was a dark, dank color. Cream Puff did not mind it, but Rag Doll, an old gray and white she-cat who was immensely sweet and kind, but a bit sore, did. She hated how hard it was on her paws.

Cream Puff saw the curtain, which teased her by blowing in a tantalizing way in the gentle breeze. The drapes, as Cream Puff believed, didn’t like her. They were always getting her in trouble and her owner seemed to like the beige things more then he liked Cream Puff.

The curtains laughed mockingly at Cream Puff in the whistling wind.

“Ok, you’re asking for it!” Cream Puff hissed in her most threatening way, raising the fur on her back and fluffing up her small white tail.

With that, Cream Puff launched herself at the nasty drapes. She clawed violently at the course textured cloth. Still growling, Cream Puff climbed her way up the drapes, leaving a river of holes in her wake.

Grunting, her half-asleep owner raised his head. Gasping as if he had just choked on an extraordinarily large grape, he leapt to he feet and seized Cream Puff, screeching wildly.   He appeared to have gone mad.

Cream Puff felt scared and desperate. Why did her owner always defend the terrible drapes? She sprung from her owner’s grasp.

He leapt back, yelling and clutching his bleeding hand. Cream Puff hadn’t meant to hurt him, so, to apologize, Cream Puff rubbed against his calves, licking them lovingly, expressing her passionate love and admiration for her owner.

Angrily, her owner pushed her away with gruff hands.

Cream Puff stumbled into the couch, feeling hurt. As if the day could get even worse, the couch pricked her.

“Hey!” Cream Puff yelped, licking her shoulder. “Why’d you do that?”

The couch was rude enough to pretend like it hadn’t done a thing. It ignored Cream Puff’s defiant words, like everyone did.

Enraged by it all, Cream Puff flung herself at the black couch. It creaked in protest, but Cream Puff would not relent.

Her owner, seemingly blind with rage, violently suspended her in the air. Firm hands griping her scruff, her owner shoved Cream Puff into the cat carrier with no remorse whatsoever.

Cream Puff purred and rubbed against the bars, remembering the last time he had put her in here. Then, he had taken her on a fun car ride and she had chased fall leaves in the park.

Smiling as the pleasant memories came to her, Cream Puff did not notice her owner’s grim expression and the way his jaw was set.

Bright-eyed, Cream Puff stared out through the rusty medal bars as the car began to drive away from home. Yes! she thought. He’s finally on my side!

But he was not on her side. Not at all.

*****

Cream Puff yawned, awake after yet another nap. She jumped to her feet, expecting to see the park the the friendly animals.

But when her owner, who still refused to make eye contact with her, hauled the cat carrier out of the car, she saw a huge building instead.

Exited, Cream Puff wondered what wonderful new adventures lay at wait beyond the doors of the Vet Clinic.

She gleefully mewed at her owner, but when he pushed through the doors he gruffly set her, still inside of the carrier, down and began to talk to a stout lady with a kind expression.

For some reason, the woman’s face fell a while after the conversation started. Cream Puff wondered why, but she didn’t have much time to think about it. A young, anxtous-looking man came in a grabbed the cat carrier.

He walked down a long hallway, and then he took her through some large gray doors. After that, it was a nightmare.

Sad-looking cats and dogs in small cages stared at her with longing faces. Dogs whined in agony, hurting Cream Puff’s sensitive ears. Cats howled sadly. Some looked happy, but others looked so sad that it hurt Cream Puff’s heart just looking at them.

She was placed down inside of a cage. There, she waited for what would happen next. Her ears felt sore from all the loud noises that she heard, but she managed to pick out one friendly voice above the clamor.

“Hi there, little kitten!” the voice meowed in a warm way.

“Who are you?” Cream Puff inquired, sea-green eyes wide with wonder.

“Oh, excuse my manners, little lady,” the voice said apologetically. “My name a Cougar. And, if you don’t mind my asking, little lady, what is your name?”

“Well, hi Cougar,” Cream Puff mewed politely. “My name is Cream Puff.”

“Hello, there, Cream Puff. Beautiful name, really,” Cougar replied. “So what are you doing here, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Well I don’t know,” Cream Puff meowed, puzzled. “Is there some kind of park around here?”

“No, I’m sorry to say,” Cougar answered. “This is what is called a vet clinic. Nothing like a park, really. So’s, you don’t know what a vet clinic is?”

Cream Puff shook her head, forgetting that her friend couldn’t see her.

“Little lady?” Cougar called.

“Oh, um, no.”

“Well, then I’ll have to teach it to you,” Cougar announced promptly. “A vet clinic is a place where they make you fall asleep with this poison stuff and then, when you wake up, you’re a different cat.” For the first time sense she had met him, Cougar’s voice sounded dark

“It’s true,” an old dog underneath them agreed in a voice that sounded watered down.

“Hello, there, Faith!” Cougar exclaimed. Then he addressed Cream Puff, “That’s Faith. She’s a hundred years old if she’s a day. I swear by it.”

“I’m not that old,” Faith retorted with a snort. “Don’t listen to a thing he says, you poor thing.”

“She’s crazy,” Cougar told Cream Puff. Then, he happily exclaimed, “Both of our names begin with ‘C’, little lady!”

“Oh,” Cream Puff meowed a little dispiritedly.

“So, little lady,” Cougar said with a sigh. “Look’s like you’re about to see why your owner brought you here.”

Cream Puff looked ahead and saw a slender woman with brown, gray-streaked hair tied back in a ponytail advancing. The woman unlatched the cage, grabbed Cream Puff, and pulled her out.

Cream Puff considered struggling, but the lady’s arms were warm and gentle, her expression kind and loving. The woman was the only thing that day that gave Cream Puff any comfort. In her arms, Cream Puff was happy again.

The woman set Cream Puff down on a large expanse of stainless steal that served as a table. Purring, Cream Puff rubbed against the other peoples arm, licking and rubbing anything she could get ahold of.

She heard the people lovingly say “aw” in union. This isn’t bad, Cream Puff thought.

Then, one of the people grabbed a large mask and put it on Cream Puff’s muzzle. She breathed in deeply, wondering what this strange thing was. She smelled an odd scent, but she trusted the kind people.

A little while later, Cream Puff felt drowsy. She stifled a yawn. Cream Puff fought to keep her eyes open, but she was no match against the drug. She closed her eyes and snuggled down. She might as well make the most of it.

After all, what could happen?

*****

Feeling groggy, Cream Puff raised her head. She felt weak. For a few moments, she didn’t know where she was. Then it came to her. She was at the vet clinic. In a medal cage. After she had fallen asleep. What was that scent? She couldn’t place it in her groggy state....

She, wavering, tempted to stand. Her paws felt weak and numb, as if they were being crushed. She crashed to the floor of the hard, cold cage.

She looked down at her paws, wondering what was wrong with them. She gasped at what she saw.

Her paws were wrapped in blood-stained white tape. Suddenly more awake, Cream Puff felt a pain so intense that it hurt her stomach. She felt as if her insides were being twisted into knots. She felt as if the tops of her paws had been cut of. She saw pools of blood on the cage floor. A wave of nausea crashed over her like a tsunami.

Wailing, she fell to the ground, weakly tearing at the cloth so that she could wash her paws. Surely washing them would help....

A grumpy-looking middle-aged man with slick black hair covered in way to much hair gel  snatched her up and pulled her mouth away from her bleeding paws. Then he tossed her back into the traitorous cat carrier that Cream Puff had once trusted.

The man then hurriedly carried the carrier into the waiting room, where her owner impatiently waited for her.

Cream Puff, still desperate to take the blood-soaked tape off of her claws, was then carried back to the now-hated car and driven back home. She felt sick, weak, sad, and somewhat empty. She felt like something in her paws was missing.

*****

Cream Puff woke up, vaguely aware of the fact that she was back home, laying on the uncomfortable hardwood floor. Pain like a thousand bees stinging her at once in her paw made her feel weak.

She got up. Cream Puff stared down at her paws, which were still warped in the tape. In desperation, Cream Puff tore at the tape. She was at it for several hours before, finally, she had ripped it off of both of her paws.

She almost wished to she hadn’t revealed what had happened to her....

She jumped back. How could this have happened? Her claws and part of her toes. Feeling dizzy with realization, she desperately licked her paw. She knew that it wouldn’t do anything, but it had empty holes in it and itched terribly.

She licked away the surgical glue and blood spilled to the floor. Head spinning, Cream Puff stumbled backwards. She fell into the couch, with the curtains, as always, laughing in their mocking, high-pitched whistle.

She shrieked and flung herself at them, unsheathing her claws, but nothing happened. She noticed that something was wrong immediately, but it wasn’t until she fell through the drapes, slamming into the wall beyond them, that she saw that her claws had not come out.

Red paw prints were left in a trail on the floor. Cream Puff stood, violently shaking, and stared at her clawless paws. They were covered in brown, dried blood and crimson blood that streamed from her empty toes.

Clawless, clawless! the curtains whistled mockingly.

Clawless, clawless! the couch creaked in a teasing tone.

Clawless, clawless! the mouse toy squeaked as Jamie, a one-year old orange tabby tom, pushed it across the blood covered hardwood.

“Clawless, clawless!” Jamie mocked with them.

Head still spinning, Cream Puff ran away. She ran away from the mocking voices.

Clawless, clawless!

She ran away from the teasing.

Clawless, clawless!

She ran away from the reminder.

Clawless, clawless!

Blinded by her tears, Cream Puff ran out of the door.

Clawless, clawless!

But, no matter how much she fled, the voices still mocked her.

Clawless, clawless!


*****
Cream Puff awoke, having cried herself to sleep, lost and alone, hours after leaving her home.

She felt exhausted from blood loss and fleeing. She also was starving. She looked around her. She had never been to this strange place before. Normally, Cream Puff would have enjoyed herself exploring, but at the moment, she was sad and hungry with no one to comfort her and no food.

She stood, weak and wavering. Why did the world have to be so cruel?

Then, suddenly, she saw a lady wearing an extremely long green dress and a shimmering, silver and blue necklace. The woman’s hair, which was long, frizzy, and black, was  tied hopelessly into a messy ponytail. It crowned her head, sticking every which-way.

Scared about what might happen if the woman picked her up, Cream Puff darted underneath a clump of spider-infested bushes. But not before the lady saw her.

In a kind, welcoming voice, the woman called, “Kitty! Kitty kitty!”

Cream Puff was tempted, but refused to come out. What if the woman captured her and  cut off her tail. She might as well.

The lady then, after a few more minutes of calling ‘kitty,’ left. Cream Puff relaxed, but it wasn’t a minute later that the woman came back, this time carrying a tasty-smelling bowl of cat food.

Cream Puff wriggled with excitement at the smell of food. The woman called to her in such a kind voice and held such a tantalizing morsel....

Cream Puff could resist no longer. She raced out, forgetting the pain in her bleeding paws, to which she had reopened the cut going underneath the bush, and wolfed down the food.

Before she had taken five bites, the person had snatched her up and hastily shoved her into a cat carrier.

Cream Puff yowled in distress. Did humans show no remorse? Did humans have no mercy? If they did, then they didn’t show it.

This one had tricked her and soon she would have no tail. Cream Puff knew it. This human would do something terrible to her. She knew it.

*****

The kind human was named Cynthia and did not, in fact, chop off Cream Puff’s tail. Instead, she was extremely nice to Cream Puff. She fed her and brushed her and, best of all, she gave her lots of love.

“To a cat, bliss is a kind voice and a loving hand.”

                                                                  ~Me

Cynthia and Cream Puff formed a strong, unbreakable bond. Cynthia was kind and loving, and Cream Puff returned the love and friendship.

But, one day, while Cream Puff was playing with a black beetle in Cynthia’s elaborate and fenced garden, a huge black and white cat with narrowed green eyes stalked in, snarling.

“W-what do you want?” Cream Puff stuttered shakily.

“I want, you worthless fleabag, to kill your old owner,” the cat growled. “My name is Jaws.”

“My old owner?” Cream Puff gasped. “Why would you want to kill him?”

“Because,” Jaws hissed. “He imprisoned me, as he did to you. I was hoping that you could tell me where his location is.”

“Never!” Cream Puff replied defiantly. “He may have been cruel to me, and to you, but he does not deserve to die. Revenge and violence is not the answer.”

Jaws unsheathed nasty-looking, long claws and bared brutal, sharp teeth. “Are you sure? You can always take your answer back.”

Cream Puff didn’t say a word, but the look in her eyes was answer enough.

“Last try,” Jaws warned mercilessly.

“Never,” Cream Puff whispered, tears forming in her eyes, as she knew that these were her last words.

Jaws lunged at her. “Die, you inferior maggot!”

Cream Puff was small, so some might think that she had an advantage. But she did not. Her legs, short and sore from the declawing.

Jaws easily, with a sharp hooked claw, it pierced her skin and stung as he suspended her into the air. Jaws hung her over his gaping maw.

“Any second thoughts? Any regrets?” Jaws asked.

Cream Puff didn’t utter a single word.

“Good-bye, then,” Jaws growled mercilessly.

And with that, Jaws dropped her into his mouth. In desperation, Cream Puff bit Jaws’s tongue.

Now, mind you, Cream Puff had lost all of her baby teeth, and now had only small stubs of ingrowing new teeth. These were to short to do anything, so it was really just her biting the giant of a cat with gums. One baby tooth was still left.

The baby tooth pierced Jaws’s tongue. Jaws stumbled backwards, howling in pain and fury. Cream Puff fell out of his jaws, but her baby tooth remained stuck in his tongue.

Jaws turned to face Cream Puff. Blood trickled from the side of his mouth. He growled and attempted speech, but the tooth in his tongue prevented that. In great pain and with the baby tooth still in his mouth, Jaws leapt over the fence....

....With a new fear of kittens.

*****

After the frightening experience, Cream Puff ran back into Cynthia’s home. Cynthia greeted her tearfully and with the cat carrier. Cream Puff willingly stepped in. Cynthia then took the carrier to her car and explained as she drove.

“Well, Cream Puff, it looks like your old owner misses you. He managed to locate you, and now he wants you back. He called me up on the phone about it, and I promised to take you back home,” Cynthia summed up.

The car swerved into her old owner, Jeramy’s, driveway. Cynthia stepped out and carried the cat carrier to Jeramy’s door and knocked. He, almost immediately, opened the door. He thanked Cynthia profusely, relentlessly telling her how grateful he was to her.

Once Cynthia had left with a tearful good-bye to Cream Puff, her owner released her from his arms and then embraced her in yet another passionate hug.

“Oh, how I missed you, Cream Puff,” he exclaimed tearfully. “Why did you run away from me, little sugar bug?”

Cream Puff replied with a blissful meow.

Her owner took her to his room and stroked her soft white fur on his bed. She settled herself down on his book once again, purring loudly.

“I wonder what adventures you had while you were out in the wilderness?” he said thoughtfully as he scratched her behind the ears.

You can’t even imagine, Cream Puff replied in her head, knowing that the humans didn’t understand the language of cats anyway.

He laughed. “None, then?” he inquired.
With that, he bound her with his arms.

And Cream Puff knew that she was exactly where she should be; in her true owner’s arms.

~End~

-KittyLover8
© 2012