Tag: animal stories

MY FIRST ADVENTURE by Elaine, 8, VIC

“My wings grew!” I thought as I looked at my fluffy feathers. I wanted to take flight so I went outside and tried. As I jumped I hovered in the air for a second, suddenly I started plummeting to the ground. I closed my eyes, ready for impact. I landed on a tall, black pole with a yellow top. I looked around hoping to be near my house. But instead of my house I was in front of a massive white wall with weird animals inside. One of them noticed me.

“ Oh no.” I thought. But instead of yelling at me it brought out a box and put me inside it. I chirped desperately hoping my mum would hear me. A second later another weird animal was standing near me. It stared at me fascinated by how I looked.

The weird animals were outside. They seemed kind though. My mum fed me some worms then she left. The smallest animal bent a blade of grass towards me. I nibbled at it then sniffed the smallest animal’s shoe. She seemed to like me. Then the animals left. They went up and away from me. I didn’t want to be left behind! I tried to fly up, higher and higher, and I landed on the edge of a big platform with a cover on top. They saw me again! I felt special with all these animals around me. One even sat down near me.

My mum came back and said it was time to go back home. I reluctantly flew back with my mum. What an adventure that was. I hope to see you again, weird animals.

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The photos in this post were provided by Donna Wu.

AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE

by Audrey, 10, VIC

Sometimes people ask me, “Hey, if you were an animal, what would you be?”

I’d think, and then say, “A cat!”

I wonder what it would really be like…

I think cats are amazing creatures! If only I could stay up late exploring! I can’t think of anything bad about- oh wait, humans picking me up! I hate being picked up. I wonder if I should say anything else next time …

“If you were an animal, what would you be?” the new kid asks.

This time I don’t hesitate. “A cat! I love cats.”

After school, she comes up to me. “Are you sure you’d want to be a cat?” 

“Yes … why? What do you- OH!” I blink, and suddenly she’s like a giant! I close my eyes and rub them. Wait, why do I have paws? Oh no, she’s turned me into a cat!

“Turn me back into a human! I don’t want to be a cat!” I yell, but she just laughs. I must be meowing!

Suddenly, my friend Natalie appears out of nowhere! “Hey! I just saw you turn her into a cat!”

The new girl turns around quickly. “No, I didn’t! You’re going mad, Natalie.” She puts her hand on Nat’s forehead. Oh, that girl is infuriating!

Natalie moves away. “Then why is her bag there? Hair ties too! THERE’S CLEARLY A CAT IN FRONT OF YOU!” she yells.

“That’s MY bag, and I dropped my hair ties. That cat is a stray,” the new girl lies, turning red.

“I’d recognise Audrey’s bag anywhere. And those are her hair ties. I bought them for her birthday last year!” Natalie retorts, and leans forward to pick me up. “This is my friend, and you’re not going anywhere until you turn her back into a human!” I wave my paw and meow in approval.

Natalie boops my nose. “See? Even as a cat, she’s exactly the same person.”

The new girl sighs. “Fine. But it’s not going to wear off until tomorrow morning. She’ll have to stay this way until then.” 

“Drat! What will my parents say?” I meow.

As if she can understand me, Natalie strokes my head. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell your parents you came over for a sleepover. My parents will totally believe me. They believe anything I say!”

The new girl nods at us and runs off. 

The next morning, a bright sunny Saturday, I walk back home with Natalie. She waves at me goodbye. “Bye!” I yell.

Being a cat is pretty fun. I think. But I’d rather be a human.

Mum greets me at the front door. “Had a fun night? Lucky girl, I was worried you wouldn’t come home!” 

“I had a great night, thanks Mum!”

She winks at me like she knows a secret. “Staying at a friend’s house sure is the cat’s whiskers! I sure know what it’s like.”

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Audrey is a frequent contributor to Alphabet Soup. Read another story by Audrey here. To send us YOUR story, poem, artwork or book review, check out our submissions guidelines. 

MEOW! by Analia, 10, NY, USA

“Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? ARE – YOU – LISTENING?”

Humans are so annoying. I just want breakfast! The humans don’t listen and it’s so annoying. They walk around the house getting themselves food and then they brush their teeth, then their hair, then they pack, and then at the last possible moment, they give you food! Maybe I’m just overreacting a tad bit. I mean it is possible that I’m the first thing they feed in the morning but get this, they wake up at 7:30 am!

It never matters how hard I yowl or scream or cry because when they sleep they never wake up unless they want to. When their eyes finally open, I take advantage. I’m actually in the middle of that right now. The owner just woke up and I’m begging her to give me my tuna, my water, and my dry food.

“Please! I’ll do anything!”

She doesn’t listen. In fact, she walks like a sloth to the kitchen. In fact, sometimes I wonder if she’ll ever get there. She finally does. Then, I wait. She takes care of my water first. Why? I need food, not water!

“Food first!”

She continues to wash out my water bowl. Sometimes, it’s pointless to argue. Finally, she’s done. Placing my water dish on the counter, I continue to follow her to the vault. A rusty midnight-colored cabinet with smoke-colored metal openings. You have to curve your fingers around the bars in order to open the cabinet. I call it the vault because there’s no way my delicate paws can open it.

She doesn’t even bother to examine what tuna can I have. She just takes the one in front of her. The green can. I alternate between purple and green. One is tuna and chicken and the other one is tuna and turkey. I always get them confused on which way is which so I call them green and purple. When she took the green can, smoke came out of my ears.

Green? Green! I had green yesterday! Give me purple! Outrageous, inconsiderate, foolish child! How dare you give me green two days in a row! I have a very delicate stomach and if you mess with my palette, you’re cleaning up the mess!

She gives me green. Some things you can’t fight. As she pours the tuna and some of its liquid into the bowl, I try to push her arms away. She fights back refusing to give me my first lick.

“Why? Why? Give me my food!”

Then, I learn the horrid secret she’s been keeping from me. The secret that makes my eyes water. She puts in antibiotic powder!

“Nooooooooooooooooooo!”

Then she lets me have it but I don’t want it. Not after she kept that awful secret from me.

In protest I march to the dining room table and lay down, making sure my white and black fur gets everywhere. Stretching out again, nobody notices the mess I’m making. She just continues to refill my dry food then moves on to the mutt’s food. The mutt they call a dog. The inferior puppy that’s been ruining my life for a year and a half now.

I continue to stretch out on the dining room table, knowing that my actions would soon bring attention to me. When the girl came for breakfast, she stared me down.

“Cookie, will you please move?”

“No!” I replied in a sarcastic tone to make sure my anger was expressed. I don’t think the message got across. I guess some battles you just can’t win.

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Analia is a frequent contributor to Alphabet Soup. You can read her earlier work here. To send us YOUR story, poem, artwork or book review, check out our submission guidelines.

THE PRISONER IN THE CAGE
by Ever, 10, Bellevue, Washington, USA

I gazed mournfully through the old rusty glass, scarred and dented with bruises of dirt and yellowed grass. It was snowing lightly outside, tiny specks of snowflakes, pure and clean, gently drifting down, making the journey of a snowflake’s life.

The chilly winter air was quite cold, and through the broken window, breezes sailed across the tattered room, piercing my delicate small body. I was a handsome young bird, with wings fresh and strong, and here I was, imprisoned, cut off from my world in the skies. How I wished to be free, to be soaring in the clouds with the ones of my kind.

The snowing went on for days and days, frosty winds that kept me weak whipped me, biting me with their sharp teeth and their venom of cold filled me. The wide world that I used to have with a flap of a wing now became the cage that I was set in, microscopic compared to my old world in the air, the world where I could explore every crook and nanny, that world that gave me freedom. But now here I was, powerless against the dull metal binds of the once-golden cage. The strips of my prison held me back, and each time I looked at them my heart was filled with that sense of lostness, that feeling of being forgotten and wiped from their minds.

It was a sad feeling, knowing you were known no more, knowing that you weren’t thought of anymore. I felt extinct, and the hope that was never there in my heart was blown out with the gale that came every now and then.

I was a prisoner. To think an animal that had the gift of freedom, the power of flying anywhere in the world, was trapped by thin steel cords; well, that was a thought that had never entered my mind before.

I was the lonely prisoner in the cage, in a musty and creaky room, uninhabited by anyone anymore. I succumbed to loneliness and sat down.

I waited for someone to find me, but maybe it was true that I would not be found. Maybe I would last forever in that cold, sad, room, never to be found …

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This is Ever’s first story for Alphabet Soup. To send us YOUR book review, poem, story or artwork: check out our submission guidelines.