Story Eri's Kitties

[Catro the Writer]

During Summer vacation Eri finds herself in the purrfect situation.
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Eri hummed as she skipped outside lunch, a baloney and cheese with a tiny bit of ketchup on it, in her hands. Since it was summertime she wasn’t exposed to the cuisine that the school cafeteria had to offer. Her dad was a great cook and made all sorts of good delicious foods for breakfast and dinner, heck he made them sausage and gravy with freshly made buttery biscuits that morning. But at lunchtime, there was a lack of creativity. It was simple things like the before-mentioned baloney sandwich, PB&Js, hotdogs, and other things that were easy to prepare. But she got a smiley face made of ketchup on her sandwich so the little girl didn’t have anything to complain about.
She sat down on the wooden steps and took a deep breath in, enjoying the clean country air. She normally lived in the city in an apartment with her dad and kitty, but for the summer her dad had decided they would rent a place to stay to give the seven-year-old an experience that she hadn’t had yet. This was a lot different than what the girl had grown accustomed to, being out here in the mountain with the nearest town being almost three hours away. The quietness of this place was a total contrast to the loud busy city life she knew. Tall buildings that reach up high into the sky, people were swarming the streets and sidewalks, cars and other vehicles constantly moving around like little colorful bullets. So the clean clear mountain air and the thick green lush forest full of trees, bushes, and thickets were strange to her, but it was a nice and welcomed change. She got to run outside and play without having to worry about getting hit by a car or being kidnapped, the night sky was illuminated with thousands of stars and the moon, unlike the city where all the lights from the buildings and street lamps made the stars invisible, and she could catch little lightening bugs. So she didn’t have anything to complain about, we’ll almost nothing. The mosquitoes at night were annoying and hurt when they bit. And none of her friends were within driving distance so she couldn’t visit any of them.
As she ate her sandwich, a smile spread across her face and the ketchup painted the corners of her mouth red, and she closed her eyes as a cool breeze hit her, making her long grey hair fly back But they shot back open when she felt something brush against her leg.
“Hm?” The seven-year-old asked, jumping a bit, and looked down at her feet. Where a brown cat stared up at her with green glassy eyes.
Mrow? The cat mewed at Eri, its long tail flicking from side to side.
“Aw, a kitty!” Eri said, her crimson red eyes sparkling with excitement as her little hand instantly shot out and started to scratch the strays head. Eri had her own kitty Mr. Gangle and he was currently inside taking a nap. He wasn’t exactly an outdoor cat so he spent all his time inside, only getting up to eat or demand scratches. But this was the first time she had experienced a kitty out in the wild! And to her relief wild kitties liked head scratches like house kitties did, evidenced by the purring radiating off of her new friend. But it didn’t last long as the brown kitty brushed past her and stood up sniffing her sandwich.
Mrow? It meowed once again looking at Eri expectedly, its tail still flicking around.
“Oh, are you hungry kitty? Eri asked and tore off a tiny bit of her sandwich, staining her fingers red as ketchup covered them, and held it out for her new furry friend to take. Which the little brown kitty did, sticking its head and sniffing the little morsel before biting it and pulling it out of Eris' hand, its whiskers tickling her hand as they brushed across her skin. “There you go!” She chirped with a beaming smile, proud of her act of kindness.
She was about to return to eating her sandwich but was interrupted by another Mrrow. And looking down to her side three new cats had appeared, all skinny like the first one. But one was black with a white belly and chest, one was light brown with white stripes, and a calico cat. And all three of them were looking up straight at her. The calico cat licked its lips and the brown one purred while the black one rolled around on its back.
“I guess you kitties are hungry too.” She said, a bit less enthusiastically this time, and tore off three more bits of her sandwich and tossed them to the cats. But the last piece of the sandwich hadn’t touched the ground when the bushes in front of the house started to rustle. “Eh?” She asked looking at the green bushes in time to see an explosion of fur fly out of the bushes and forest as a dozen or so cats charged her. Then in a manner of seconds, the little girl had been trapped in a circle of cats meowing and trying to climb up her.
“Dad, help!” The little girl cried out, giggling as the cats nuzzled against her, purred in her ears, and their little wet noses pressed against her, “I’ve been surrounded!”
That statement in itself would have been enough to scare any parent and send them running to their child. But with Eri, it was extra terrifying for her, as there had once been a gang that had once held the child hostage and done horrible experiments on her. It wasn’t a pleasant memory for Eri and even her dad shuttered whenever they remembered the day they had invaded the base of the villains and saved her. Eri had been terrified, skinny from malnutrition, and had no idea what hope or happiness was. As far as they could tell Eri had been stuck there her entire life up to that point. And though most of the gang had been captured along with their leader Overhaul, the extent of the gang's reach was a mystery. So everyone was sure to keep an eye out for any remaining gang members.
“Hey!” Her dad yelled, his deep gruff voice echoing across the empty mountainscape, which did nothing to scare any of the cats. A scowl was chiseled on his face as his eyes, which were normally a dark grey, were glowing red and his long black hair was floating behind him, which meant he was ready to fight. But when he looked down and saw his daughter covered in a blanket of cats as if it were some sort of new fashion statement, the girl was giggling her head off as she tore off bits of her sandwich and threw them. “Hey, hey, shoo!” He said, a bit less loud and intimidating this time, ignoring the fact he hadn’t scared a single stray away with his yell. Though he did blame the pink apron that was currently tied around him which had made him look a lot less frightening. “Eri, stop feeding them! I made that sandwich for you!” He huffed once all the cats were off his daughter. Who now was holding a tiny bit of what once was an entire sandwich. And the dozen of eyes stared at the bit as they waited to see who the girl would throw the last morsel to.
“But the cats are hungry, dad!” Eri immediately protested looking up at her daf. It wasn’t fair that she got to eat and these clearly hungry kitties had to suffer, “Could we give them some food?”
“But then we won't have anything to eat.” He said sitting down on his knees beside the girl and yawning. Used one hand to rub his eyes and the other to pat the seven-year-old on the head.
“Mr. Gangle’s food?”
“Then he wouldn’t have anything to eat.” He countered though that may not have been a terrible thing as the cat was getting pretty chubby.
“Mm…” Eri whined as she puffed her cheeks out and crossed her arms, pouting. “They’re. Hungry. Daddy!” She declared emphasizing every word and hitting him with daddy, showing she was serious about this and was desperate to get her way.
“I know, Eri.” He said to her, he was well aware the cats were hungry, considering she almost drowned under an ocean of fur a minute ago. “But what do you want us to do about it? Drive down the mountain to the nearest store just to buy a bag of cat food?”
“Maybe…” Eri said, her cheeks still puffed out, and she darted her eyes to the cats. Which made the man pause and stare at her. She was a sweet girl with a heart of gold and held the keys to his heart.
“Fine.”He sighed, reaching over and plucking the bit of sandwich out of her hand and licked it into the flock of felines. “I’ll make you another sandwich and after you eat it we’ll get ready and go get the cat food.
Hearing this Eri gasped, her pout turning into a wide toothy smile, and her eyes sparkled once again as she tackled her dad in a hug. She knew she could sway her dad into seeing things her way, though it didn’t always work. But it was always a good time when she managed to pull it off and get her way.
But true to his word he lifted the girl and carried her inside and to the kitchen, making sure no uninvited furry visitors followed them in. And he got the girl another sandwich making sure to put another ketchup smiley face on it, Eri practically inhaled the sandwich to quicken the process of leaving, and scurried off to her room. Which wasn’t anything like her room at home. At home her bedroom walls were painted purple, the ceiling painted like the sky, and at night when the lights were turned off a bunch of stars appeared and made the ceiling look like the night sky. But here the walls were just boring wood and the ceiling was an uninteresting white color. Then at home, she had all sorts of toys and stuffed animals that waited for her, but here she only had a few of those that her dad allowed the girl to bring. And her wardrobe was much more limited! At home, she had a dresser and closet filled with play clothes, her school uniform, and fancy dresses that would make a princess jealous. But here, well she had all those things besides her school uniforms, but the options were much more limited since she had a smaller closet and dresser.
Not that Eri would ever complain about it everything she had there and back at home was more than she ever had when she was trapped with Overhaul. There all she had to call her own was a dirt tearing dress that was almost too small for her and a dark room to stay in. Though it wasn’t like she exactly had a choice in staying or leaving, and a medical chair to sleep on. So even this room was like paradise to her compared to what she had.
Getting her Pjs off, which had consisted of a baggy purple sweater and some grey sweatpants, and switched it out for a light blue shirt and a bright yellow dress that fell to her knees. It had overall-like straps that wrapped around her shoulders, letting the short sleeves of her shirt stick out. Then she slipped on some light blue socks with yellow ducks on them matching her other clothes, and then slipped her feet into some bright red boots. It was the first time in a few days she had gotten to dress up a bit. Since they didn’t have to go out every day she either stayed in her Pjs all day or when they went outside on the trails or exploring she was in clothes meant to be covered in dirt and experience some abuse. So it was nice to be dressed in something nice and dressy again.
Mew A deep mew was heard gaining Eris's attention making her look back and saw a large lump under her sweater squirming a bit. Pulling the sweater back revealed a large black cat with white circles around its eyes. It squinted as it glared up at Eri wondering what was going on.
“Mr. Gangle!” Eri chirped and laid her top half on her bed and pulled the cat into a hug, burying her face into the cat's furry belly. The bell on his blue-collar jingled as she did so. And though the chubby cat looked less than pleased, he rang off a purr and rested his head on Eri’s hand.
“Ok!” Eri said standing up, making the lazy cat raise his head, “Me and dad are going to the store. So you have to stay here and protect the house. Kay?” She asked standing up straight balling one fist and planting it on her hip and wagging a finger at the cat with her other hand. Mr. Gangle nodded his head, following the moving finger, but then laid his head back down to continue his midday nap. But Eri took it as her furry pal understanding his mission.
Skipping out of her room she went to the bathroom like the rest of the house it was a lot smaller than what they had at home but it still worked. Well for the most part anyways. When one person needed to use it the small bathroom worked fine but when both she and her dad needed to use it when it got a little cramped. And it was the only bathroom in the house. And her dad was already in the bathroom brushing his teeth. A burst of warm moist air hit her in the face as well as the smell of her dad's body wash, which was called Spring Fresh but it didn’t smell like a spring day to Eri it just smelled like soap to her, signifying that he had just gotten out of the shower a few minutes ago. Eri herself took baths before she went to bed so she'd be good for the rest of the day.
“Scuse me!” She squeaked reaching over and grabbed her toothbrush, which was rainbow colored with the top part of a unicorn sticking on it, and pressed the button on the middle of the brush. Immediately the toothbrush made a brrr sound and she started to brush her teeth. While she did that her dad brandished a dark purple hair brush and immediately started to brush the girl's hair. He tried his best to be careful to not hurt the girl in the process of getting her hair straightened out. But trying to brush long hair was a painful process and he knew from experience. So he was chided with a few grunts and gasps. But other than that the brushing wasn’t too much of a hassle. He also put her grey hair into two ponytails. He often teased her about cutting her hair shorter so it would be easier to manage. Even for a girl, Eris' hair was pretty long as it flowed down her back and almost touched her legs. So shorter hair would have been way easier to handle and maybe a nice change.
“Ok, you’re ready. Go wait for me.” Her dad said as he took a red brush and started to brush his long black hair. And Eri listened and went to the living room, grabbed her book off the coffee table, and climbed into a cushioned blue chair. The story was a part of a series about a bunch of cats who lived in the woods and had to survive the wilderness. the weather, and the other tribes of cats. Thinking it over made the girl smile once again, what if she was feeding a tribe of cats and she was becoming their ally? No that couldn’t be, the cats in her book had a rule about eating food from accepting food from people, it was strictly forbidden. But it was a cool idea to think about nonetheless. So Eri went on reading her book as she waited for her dad to finish getting ready. It had taken a lot of work to get Eri up to par with her peers concerning academics. But the girl was thirsty for knowledge and took in everything that was said to her, so the path to get her caught up was not as hard as it could have been. Now she was surpassing her classmates in reading as the seven-year-old couldn’t get enough stories and burned through books easily. The fact she got through eight pages in the few minutes her dad needed to get ready was a testimony to it.
“Ok, let's go.” Her dad said walking to the front door. He was dressed in his normal get-up, a black long-sleeved shirt with matching baggy pants and shoes. His hair matched his clothes perfectly. Putting her unicorn bookmarker in the book Eri slid off the chair and immediately rushed over to her dad to follow him out.

“There we go kitties,” Eri said with a beaming smile on her face and a little blue bag of cat food in her arms. At her feet, four cats were devouring a bowl of brown dry cat food she had poured for them. Her dad had a much bigger bag of cat food and was pouring it into a few other grey metal bowls they had bought at the store when they got the cat food. He had insisted that they just buy the large bags of food as they would last much longer than the little bags of food. But then Eri wouldn’t have been able to feed the cats! Besides using a cup and filling the bowls one cup at a time, and that would have take forever! So her dad did buy her a few small bags so she could help him.
But now all her new cat friends were fed and happy, which was all she cared about. And when all the dishes were filled up she followed her dad inside to put the food away in a place where no unwanted guest would be able to get to it for a midnight snack.
“Thank you, daddy!” The little girl chirped and hugged her dad’s leg. Which earned a smirk from the normally gloomy man and a head pat from him. He did love how big of a heart the little girl had.
“You’re welcome Eri.” He said to her, “Now go take your bath and get ready for bed while I make dinner.” He suggested. It was getting pretty late, the outside was tinted a bright orange from the setting sun. The trip down the mountain, to the store, and back up the mountain to get back to the house took hours, and nighttime was quickly approaching. With a head nod, Eri went to get ready for bed. If the rest of summer was going to be like this then it was going to be an interesting vacation.
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This story is based on a picture found here: /p/CQjwJWcJaot/?igshid YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
-I did get permission to post this story from the creator of the picture-