Fuzzy and the Haunted Road

 

     All kitties heard about the haunted road, in paw-ticular the one that was a mile and a half up the road.  There have been stories for years about a hidden haunted house, birds with no heads, no wings and on and on…

          Fuzzy, a calico cat with a friendly personality and a fuzz-able attitude, adored being scared.  She loved the thrill of her fur standing on edge and her tail sticking straight up in the air.  However, she had one problem, not one of her kitty pals wanted to go up there and it explore it with her.

          And during Halloween week, Fuzzy wanted nothing more than to be scared.  Again, she wanted to be scared but her siblings and her mom, Blackie for years meowed, “no meowing way” to any meow-gestion of heading up that road during Halloween week but this year it was going to be different bepaws Fuzzy, finally, had someone to paw with on an adventure on the haunted road.

          Eddie the cat.

          Who is Eddie?  A mackerel tabby that came to live with Fuzzy’s family last year.  Fuzzy had a big family, you see, made up of her mom (Blackie), her sister (Toni) and her brothers (Paws and Tippy).  There was also another new cat in the family named Alex, but he was a little high-strung and ran away at the meow-gestion of taking a trip down a haunted road.

          However, Eddie loved the idea.  Eddie was on the hyper side and had no problem going on adventures.  Eddie was one friendly kitty, and he was always looking to make a new pal.  Fuzzy didn’t have to ask Eddie twice if he wanted to check out a haunted road.

          So, the kitties started out and other cats in the neighborhood were curious about where they were headed.  “Where are you two going?”  asked a gold and white cat named Cam, who was about a mile and a half from the road sitting on a boulder.  “You two look like you’re in a hurry.”

          “We’re checking out the haunted road,” Fuzzy answered.  “Do you want to go with us?”

          Now Cam was a large cat, who looked really tough.  He didn’t look like the type of cat that would spook easily but his eyes got huge.  Fuzzy was startled and Eddie was even shocked.  How could a big cat like Cam look so spooked?  “What are you looking like that for?”  asked Eddie.

          “Don’t you two know what happens to any cat who goes there?”  he asked.

          Naturally, Fuzzy heard the stories and Eddie heard some but she didn’t think what she meowed to him sunk in.  Cam, stretched out more on the boulder, pleased with himself for getting their attention.  “Any cat that walks down it disappears.”

          “Where do they go?”  asked an innocent Eddie, fascinated by Cam’s deep meowing and smug whisker twitching.

          “No cat knows,” Cam answers.  “Then there’s the birds with no heads.”

          Fuzzy couldn’t help it.  She gave a laugh/purr.  “I don’t believe it.”

          “Don’t doubt the power of the haunted road,” Cam warned.

          “C’mon Eddie, let’s get pawing.  We’re almost there,” Fuzzy meowed, pawing on in a business-like way. 

          Eddie pawed on agreeably but let’s note Eddie was also a polite kitty, he turned around to give a meow with you later to Cam but guess what?  He was gone!

          Meeee-huh????

          Fuzzy noticed that Eddie stopped.  “What’s going on?”  she meowed.

          “Cam’s gone!”  Eddie yowled.  “Where did he go?”

          Fuzzy felt a couple pieces of her fur stand up on edge but she had to stay purr-fectly calm.  “Don’t worry about it,” she meowed.  “He probably just went home.”

          Unbelievably, Eddie looked majorly spooked.  “What if he was a ghost?”  he asked.

          Fuzzy wondered about that too but she couldn’t let Eddie know that she was so spooked bepaws she needed him on her trip down the haunted road.  “C’mon, pal, you’re not afraid, are you?” 

          Eddie’s whiskers twitched.  “I’m not afraid of anything,” he meowed proudly and with that he turned back to Fuzzy, and they continued pawing towards the haunted road. 

          Now, I’m sure you have one important question.  How in the meow were these kitties supposed to find the haunted road?  How would they know they were on the right road and not some dirt path.  Well, the key was to find a dead maple tree that looked like it was tilting to one side.  Also, there was rumors that right in the middle there was a large, red circle that looked like blood.  Fuzzy saw it right away, stopping she meowed out to Eddie, “There it is!”

          The tree was indeed spooky looking.  It actually looked like it was shining under the moonlight.  Fuzzy was amazed too and how dark it got.  “Meeee-ow!”  she yowled to Eddie.  “Are you ready?”

          Eddie didn’t have to be asked twice.  He ran towards it and Fuzzy followed, feeling that tinge of excitement in her tail.  This was going go be a pawsome adventure.

          “Eddie, don’t go to far ahead of me!”  Fuzzy meowed. 

          “What’s the matter, Fuzzy?  Are you scared?”  I didn’t think you could be scared!”

          The second Eddie gave that smug meow there was a strange howl in the east.  Now, that made him stop.  “What in the meow was that?”  he asked.

          Fuzzy pawed up to Eddie looking in every direction.  “I’m not sure,” she meowed.  “Maybe it’s one of those coyotes that the human always talks about.”

          Eddie stared at Fuzzy with big eyes and Fuzzy could tell that his whiskers were twitching rapidly.  Fuzzy thought that he was going to take off but surprisingly, he continued down the road.

          Now, if you’re wondering about the road, let’s note it was all dirt with a sandy feel.  It was wide enough that a car could go down it, but humans didn’t know about this haunted road.  It was just one of those things that cats knew about.  Humans couldn’t handle it anyway, all of you kitties know how weird they get about haunted stuff.

          Fuzzy loved the feel of the night.  It was a perfect combination of warm and cold.  The moon was full which was purry cool bepaws it was streaming through the trees, giving the road a little bit of glow.  Fuzzy was feeling really proud of herself, there was no way that she was going to be frightened here.  As for Eddie, well Eddie was a hyper kid.  Nothing was really bothering him, so far anyway.

          Then all of a sudden…

          The bare trees started rustling.  That made Eddie stop in his tracks.  What in the meow was up?  Eddie was far ahead of Fuzzy, and she heard him ask, “What is up with this?”

          Fuzzy pawed up to him.  “Are you scared?”

          “I’m not scared,” Eddie answered, but that was weird.”

          The trees started rustling again.  Fuzzy and Eddie watched them go back and forth, back, and forth, then pawed on.  However, they didn’t get far bepaws a huge turkey vulture landed on the old oak tree right in front of them!

          Eddie never saw a turkey vulture before, so he shrunk back.  Fuzzy and seen them a couple of times but they were still she was a little ‘fuzzed out’ by the whole thing.  They were spooky looking birds with that long neck and their ability to lean down and glare at you was legendary among cats.  Fuzzy was officially spooked.

          She was spooked, not frightened.  There is a difference.

          The vulture glared at them and that made Eddie back-up more.  At this point, he was on Fuzzy’s back.  “You two are really stupid,” the vulture said. 

          “Well, your really ugly,” said a spooked Eddie.

          “We’re not scared,” Fuzzy added.

          The vulture looked at Fuzzy and Eddie with amusement.  “Well, have fun kids,” he said, then he flew off right towards the moon.

          Fuzzy and Eddie watched him for a couple of seconds and then moved on.  To tell you the truth, it looked like Eddie was more relaxed.  “Who cares about some vulture?”  Fuzzy said.

          “Yeah,” Eddie answered.  “What does he know?”

          As if on contact, there was another howl.  Meeee-wow it sounded like that was getting closer.  “Are you sure that was a coyote?”  Eddie asked.

          Fuzzy didn’t want to scare Eddie bepaws, well she really didn’t want him to go and be alone.  Sure, Fuzzy was brave but c’mon pals, the kitty wasn’t stupid.  She decided to change the subject, “Look at it this way,” she meowed, “we haven’t seen any bloody birds.”  And BOOM as if it were planned, she ran smack into a tree stump with a great horned owl in front her with blood coming from his left side!  Now that made Fuzzy shrink back and yowl, “EDDIE!!!”

          Eddie wasn’t that far ahead, so he came back immediately.  When he saw the owl, he took off again, this time up a tree and the second he did that an enormous number of bats flew out of it.  It looked like thousands to Fuzzy especially since they were flying towards her head.  Fuzzy broke out into a run down the road, not paying any attention to if Eddie ever came down the tree.

          Note, we’re in freakout mode-not frightened.

          The bats seemed like they wouldn’t leave Fuzzy alone.  They kept making this high-pitched shrieking sound which was driving her crazy.  As shrieking got louder, Fuzzy ran faster and that’s when she saw it.

          The legendary haunted road’s ‘haunted house.’ 

          Holy meows it just popped out of nowhere.  Fuzzy stopped to just stare at it.  It was two stories and it looked like it was made out wood.  It looked like it was tilting to one side.  The bats that were following Fuzzy were flying around it now and where in the meow did this come from? Lightning???  Fuzzy didn’t hear thunder how was there lightning? 
What was weird about the whole thing was that Fuzzy felt like she was being pulled toward it. 

          But Eddie’s yowling broke the spell, “FUZZY!!!!!!!!!  FUZZY!!!!!!!!”

          Fuzzy turned and saw Eddie running towards her and he was being chased by a pack of dogs!  We’re not talking cute dogs either- we’re talking dogs with dark, ripped fur, big teeth and Fuzzy swore she saw red on some of them.  HOW IN THE MEOW COULD DOGS HAVE RED ON THEM?  Was that blood??? 

          Fuzzy wasn’t standing around tot think about it.  She took off in what you could describe as a ‘cheetah-like’ run.  Go Fuzzy go!  Eddie was shrieking like crazy and soon he disappeared, down another path.  Was Fuzzy reaching that ‘frightened’ stage?  Well, she was running to fast.  All of that running seemed like it wasn’t her far bepaws it was getting darker and darker.  More trees seemed to have appeared and the haunted road seemed like it was endless.

          That didn’t stop Fuzzy from running but one surprising thing did- hands.  Human hands were reaching out from the ground, and one got a hold of Fuzzy’s tail.  You see Fuzzy had been running so fast that she didn’t realize she went into a cemetery.  A hand had a hold of Fuzzy’s tail and was pulling at it harder and harder.  What if Fuzzy was yanked into the ground what was going to happen then?

          Then from above there was a shrieking noise! Holy meows it was a hawk!  It grabbed Fuzzy by the back and soared up into the sky.  As many of you know hawks are a cat’s worse nightmare and Fuzzy felt it.  She was at the stage of being a:

          FRIGHTENED FUZZY!
      Even though Fuzzy was flat-out frightened, she didn’t want to die.  There was no way she was going to be eaten by some hawk!  She was squirming and somehow managed to claw that hawk at the bottom and that caused Fuzzy to fall…

          With closed eyes, Fuzzy how far she was falling but she let out a loud shriek and then all of a sudden- BOOM!

          Fuzzy’s eyes opened, and she was on her human’s front porch.  What in the meow just happened?  To top it all off, Eddie was staring at her and with twitching whiskers he asked:

          “You still frightened, Fuzzy?”