A/N: Yep, it's short, but we had to write a short story for school, so don't blame me. Enjoy!

My Cat Honey

It was a sunny and clear morning. Halley headed out, like usual, to feed the goats and collect eggs from the seemingly gazillion chickens that her family owned. She unlocked the gate, feed bucket in one hand, egg basket in the other, and unlocked the blue barn's door.

"Maaaaa!"

Four goats tumbled out. Halley quickly put the feed bucket down.

"Balk? Balk-balk!"

Chickens were next.

Halley checked the boxes and found eighteen eggs. She happily put the eighteen eggs in the basket, and headed outside the goat pen.

Rustle, rustle. She heard in a bush.

Halley stopped.

Slowly, so slowly that Halley thought it could take forever, a paw came into view. It was caked with mud, and small, but from what Halley could see, it was whitish. It was rounded, and you could call it petite, if you were into words like that. It was, in other words, a cat's paw.

Could it be Honey? It's been another six months. She would be a year old now.

Honey had only been about thirteen weeks old when Halley had first gotten her, about a year ago. It was, in a way, love at first sight. Halley had had this bound with her new pet. She slept with Honey almost every night. Halley's dad had installed a cat flap in the back door, and the family had gotten an electric fence that kept cats inside the backyard, so it was safe to let Honey roam around. Also, her name fit her exactly. Honey was a golden tabby cat, with white paws and the tip of her tail was white too. She had yellowish-greenish eyes.

Halley was happy with her new pet. She was the best cat in the world. But then Honey ran away.

It was a Saturday, and Halley and Honey were outside. Halley was reading, and her cat was pretending to stalk a mouse. Then a truck horn hooted.

It wasn't that close, but it was loud. Loud enough to scare away Honey to jump up and run away into the woods.

Halley shook her head to brush away her unhappy thoughts, and headed into the woods, which belonged to her family, to her "shelter". She had given her eggs to her mom, and in return got a pancake and a hard-boiled egg for breakfast.

Her "shelter" was a sort of hut, covered with leaves and sticks for a roof, and held up on vertical logs. A small cave was at the back of it, and Halley had a pretend bed made of the softest leaves she could find. In the hut part of the shelter, there were small, oddly shaped or interesting stones that Halley had found. Halley settled down on a log which worked well as a seat, put her breakfast on a flat stone that she used for things like this, and ate her egg and pancake. When she was finished, she worked on her hut for a while – looking for more interesting stones and adding more leaves and twigs to some empty spaces on the roof.

Halley sat down on a rock to catch her breath. A twig cracked. "Hello?" Halley called out.

"Murrow!"

A cat stepped out of some bushes. Haley almost gasped. The cat looked somewhat like Honey – the fur was browner, but the eyes were the same. Halley did the first thing that came to mind. She grabbed a leftover hunk of egg and placed it near the cat. The cat stepped closer and closer, until it was about an inch from the egg. Then the cat's head shot out like a snake, and swallowed the piece of egg.


The next day, Halley headed out with a bag of cat food, and two bowls. She had told her parents about the cat, and her dad had bought a bag of cat food, and her mom had helped her find the bowls. They had asked her if she wanted to adopt the cat, but Halley wasn't sure.

She went over to a bush that was near her shelter. It was very thick, and Halley piled moss in a small pile to make a bed for the cat. She filled the two bowls with cat kibble from the bag and water from a nearby stream.

"Meow?"

Halley spotted the cat. "Hi, there," she said. "I'm putting out food and water for you in this bush, and I put in some moss for a bed, okay?"

The cat meowed again. Halley wasn't sure if it had understood her, but she hoped it had.


Brrriiiiinnnnngggg!

Halley stood up out of her chair, got her lunchbox from her locker, and headed to meet her friend Madison for lunch. The two friends joined a couple of other girls at a table in the cafeteria.

"I found a feral cat over the weekend," Halley said after she had taken a few bites of her sandwich.

"Really? Cool!" Kate, one of Halley's friends at the table spoke.

"Do you want us to help?" Madison asked.

Halley looked gratefully at Madison. It wasn't every day that your friend asked something that was needed to be asked.

"Sure. Which one of you wants to help?"

"Sorry, Halley," Kate said, chewing, "I have violin practice after school, and I'm not going to have a lot of extra time to finish the rest of my homework."

"Madison?" Halley turned to her friend. Come on, Maddie. I know you can do this.

"Sure. After school, right?"

Halley nodded, happy that Madison was going to help. "Call me when you're done with homework, and you can bike over."


"Have you done this before?" Madison said when she arrived at Halley's house.

"Yes, after I saw the cat I went back to my house and got some cat kibble."

Halley and Madison walked toward the place where Halley had first seen the cat. Under the bush, next to some moss, were two bowls – one half filled with water, and other with some cat food crumbs. If you looked down from the top of the bush, you couldn't see the ground, and there was a dip in the ground for the cat. Best of all, it was near the shelter.

Madison went with the water dish to the stream to get more water, and Halley poured more cat kibble in.

"Murrow?"

The cat had walked out of some bushes, and Halley drew back from the food dish as the cat plunged its nose into the cat food. Madison stepped out, the water dish full. Madison looked at the cat for a moment, then casually walked over and put the water dish near the cat. The cat looked up, sniffed the air, then went to the water dish and drank a little. Then, amazingly, the cat went over to Madison and meowed a thank-you and rubbed her head against Madison's hand. Madison, looking as if she didn't quite believe what was happening, slowly pet the cat. Then, with a purr, the cat ran off.


Plink, plink, plink.

It had been raining lightly for a while, mostly drizzling,but it wasn't enough to dampen Halley's spirits about the cat. Sometimes, like now when she was sitting on her window sill cushion, thoughts about Honey rose up. Halley also thought about the feral cat and wondered if it was okay living outside. She pondered adopting her. But she wasn't sure if she would fully want another cat.

The day before, when it had also been raining, Halley had found the cat in her shelter. She had moved the bowls and moss to a corner of her shelter, and the cat had purred in thanks.

Now she wondered if she should add to the roof of the shelter, to make it more comfortable for the cat.

Hmm. Maybe I could call Madison? Yeah, I'll do that.

She headed downstairs and grabbed the phone.


"We'll re-fill the bowls, and then add more to the roof of the shelter, okay?"

"Sure." Madison said.

"You don't mind helping me?"

"Of course not!" Madison said. "If you need help, I'll help you. Plus, I like doing this."

Madison was soon back at Halley's place. The girls filled the bowls with more food and water again. Madison remembered that the weather report had predicted a bad storm that night.

They added more leaves and sticks to the roof. When they had worked on it for a while, the cat came, a bright blue something in her mouth. The cat dropped the object - which were two blue feathers - in front of Madison and Halley. Madison picked one up.

"Thank you," she told the cat with a pat.

Halley picked the other feather up. She gingerly reached out and stroked the cat. Madison went back to work, letting Halley and the cat have some time alone. Eventually, Halley went back to work, and they didn't stop working on the roof until they were sure the cat was safe.


Blink, blink.

Halley woke up and almost immediately remembered the cat. The storm had gone on for two days, but everything was quiet now. She looked out the window, and everything looked fresh and green and wet. There was no rain, no thunder, no lightning.

She headed downstairs, toasted and jellied a roll, wrote a quick note to her mom and dad, put it on the counter, and headed out. Halley grabbed the bag of cat food, rolled the top up, and stuck it in her jacket pocket.

She went to the woods, munching on her roll, and very soon came to the shelter. "Hello? Kitty? Are you here?" she called out. No answer. Halley tried to tell herself not to panic as the minutes passed and no cat appeared. Halley looked around the area where the shelter was. She looked under bushes and under rocks. Her search was fruitless.

Where is she? Maybe I should check the shelter. Maybe the cat is still sleeping and didn't hear me.

So Halley went into her shelter. Blinking in the dim light, she saw something move. Heart thudding, she called out "Kitty?" She was answered with a meow.

The cat, in her terror, had ran into the cave at the back of the shelter and slept on the leaves. The dirt that had been on the cat's fur was now gone, probably from the rain. It was now golden. A million thoughts ran though Halley's head when she saw that the feral cat had golden tabby fur, white paws and tail tip, and yellowish-green eyes. It was Honey! She was sure of it. But there was only one way for Halley to make sure.

"Honey?"

She was answered with a meow. A meow that said "Yes. I'm Honey, your cat."