My visits to Horror Park were becoming truly like the name. I used to visit the park not for any ‘Adventure of your Life’ but for remaining alive. My nose would sniff out crumbs left here and there, leftovers in the garbage bin or food spilled by clumsy toddlers. But slowly they dwindled..the crumbs and the leftovers..And to think that people pay to get horrified. If only they were a dog with a dog’s life!
How I wished I was a black dog. Very long ago when I used to sleep on a full stomach I would wonder what’s in a colour? But now I was only thinking about food.
My strong black nose was tired of twitching and expanding, going sniff! sniff! sniff! but all I smelt was the grass. How much better to be a cow – grass was available in abundance at Horror Park.
Guuurrrrrr Gurrrrrrrr Garrrrrr Garrrrr…my stomach was growling so loudly, its sound could be one more addition to the horrors of Horror Park.
I had sniffed the entire place. I could describe the smell of rain on earth better than any poet in the world! Or the smell of plastic cans, bottles, paper napkins, food wrappers, human sweat, everything that had wafted past my nostrils. But food! Not a single..er…single sniff of food.
Famished, I just dropped on the grass. A gunny sack was lying there. I lay there listlessly watching it. It moved a little. Food doesn’t move, so I did not bother to check what it was. But then it shook and then shook some more.
I jumped up and went near the sack. It was shaking violently now. I untied the rope at its mouth. Out popped another creature just like me. Well almost like me.. No wait a minute..I could not see it clearly in the dark except that it also had four paws and a black nose.
It was a cat. A baby cat. But it was very fat. It was a very fat baby cat.
“Hello! how did you get here?”
“I got separated from my mother.”
Poor very fat baby cat, it must be missing its mother, thought I. Just then a white cat crossed us.
“Hey look! Your momma!”
The very fat baby cat shook its head. “That is not my mother.”
“Oh! I will take you to the other side of the park. Lots of cats live there.”
The very fat baby cat again shook his head, a little faster this time. “I am not a cat!”
“Not a cat?” I gazed at the black stripes on the shiny yellow skin.
“My momma is here only at the park but I am lost.”
“What! momma here only?”
I ran so fast that I am sure I have must have broken the doggy world record.
I never visited Horror Park after that but whenever there is a procession saying save the forests, I eagerly join in.
Surbhi Sarna 