Zoe – Under a Halloween Moon

Greetings, my friends! Zoe here. Some of you might be familiar with my claim to fame, which is that I am a cat author. PLEASE NOTE: I am not a human who writes about cats. I am a cat who writes about humans. Actually, I write about my adventures which sometimes include those two-legged creatures we call humans, and very occasionally my stories will include the human I live with. Emily’s her name and painting’s her game. But now back to me.

A few days ago, I noticed that every time Emily went out, she returned with bags of candy. Chocolates, her favorite. But the bags remained unopened—that was my first big clue. I also noticed a lot of orange and black “stuff” coming out of their hibernating places. Clue number two. And now, the front of our house is decorated to be attractive to visitors—attractive if one were Dracula, that is. Again? Already? I shivered at the memory.

It seems like just yesterday . . .

Photo by: Annmarie Maroon

My human is awfully busy today, running around, hanging orange, black, and purple lights all around our windows and doorways. Putting out a big pot of candy in our living room, right by the front door. Lucky for her I don’t like chocolate.

She hadn’t paid me any attention all day, so, out the cat door I went, in search of some adventure to relieve my boredom. The sun was setting, and I wandered around in the twilight, enjoying the cool air ruffling my fur. Off in the distance, I heard noises that I did not recognize. Being a curious feline, I followed my ears, running down the street and around the corner—where I stopped short.

.

I saw monsters. I saw groups of creatures, some with wings spread wide behind them and others carrying things that looked like dangerous weapons; all of them looked scary, with horribly scarred faces and blood on their mouths. They were yelling and making enough noise to wake the dead. In fact, I soon realized that they DID wake the dead . . . I saw the walking dead walking among them. There were also some humans who seemed to mingle with these monsters, and I did not understand why they were not afraid, especially of the zombies. I mean, those things eat humans. Yikes, maybe they eat cats too!

I decided to get out of sight while thinking what to do next. I ducked underneath a bush and watched the group of monsters go from house to house. What were they going to do? Frightened for those living in the houses, I could not stay and watch, so—while I hate to admit it—what I did next was to turn tail and run home.

Photo by: Rosa Cruz

I left the safety of the bush, running for my life, when suddenly, a figure dressed all in black seemed to appear out of nowhere. She stood before me, stooped at the waist, one hand holding a walking stick, and the other beckoning to me with long, black-tipped fingernails. A witch . . . I was looking at a real-life witch! I froze. She tried to sound pleasant but her voice was staticky and most unpleasant. “Here, kitty, kitty. Such a pretty black cat. You, my pretty thing, will be my familiar!”

“Familiar”? Is that what witches call dinner? I didn’t know, but I knew I was not going to hang around and find out. She took a step toward me, trying to look friendly, smiling. But her smile revealed pointy black teeth. And then she flicked her green tongue at me, displaying a big old gray wart right on its tip. I didn’t want her to get any closer to me! I was about to run in the other direction when I heard a voice I did recognize.

“Zoe? Zoe! Where are you?” My human to the rescue. Truth be told, I was relieved she’d found me, but I could not let her know that, so I stayed put.

My human came charging up the street and saw me sitting there, still facing the little witch. As Emily ran toward us, the little witch ran away. Scooping me up in her arms, my human exclaimed, “Thank God you’re alright! I told you it is not safe for black cats to be out on Halloween night.”

lvgroom witch by Diane Darwish

“Halloween” night? I had no clue what “Halloween” was, and made a mental note to look it up when I got home. Emily was acting so fearful, but I wasn’t afraid, not really. Still, it was comforting to be in her arms. And the bonus was that I didn’t have to walk home. Emily carried me all the way back to our house and didn’t put me down until we were inside and the door was shut behind her. She scolded me for going outside on Halloween, when the “ghosts and goblins” could get me. She said all sorts of wild things come out on this night, that they loved black cats, and that I would surely be in danger under a Halloween moon.

While I was pondering her use of “danger” and “love” in the same statement, the doorbell rang. When Emily opened the door, a cute little girl dressed in a pretty pink gown and wearing a bejeweled crown yelled “Trick or treat!” Emily gave her a chocolate treat, and then she gave me a tuna treat.

So, here we are now . . . that time of year again. The Halloween moon hangs low and large, bright orange against the dark night sky. My human put a big X across my cat door with thick tape, and congratulated herself for being so clever. I don’t have the heart to tell her she didn’t have to do that. I’ve done the Halloween thing. I’ve been out in the chilly air, watched monsters gather under a Halloween moon, and you know what? I much prefer the relative quiet of my house, the warmth of my bed . . . and getting treats without having to go house-to-house to beg for them.

Zoe & Emily both live HERE

Zoe’s Facebook Page is HERE

Emily’s Facebook Page is HERE

Emily’s Sunrise Editing Services

NOTE:

You can catch up with any Zoe the Cat Posts you may have missed, by any of the following three means:

Clicking on the Zoe the Cat tag at the bottom of her posts

The Categories Cloud in the right column and clicking on Zoe the Cat

Typing Zoe into the Search box top right of blog and Enter or Return