A story of a Little Girl

Once, there was a little girl who loved animals. She was a loner and didn't have much friends. The other kids teased her for her love of animals. They all thought her to be crazy for having too many pets. But she didn't care. As long as she had her pets, and the support of her father, she knew she was okay.

One night, as she was walking home, she heard the cries of a kitten. She stopped and looked for the source. She found a kitten in the neighbor's bushes. The kitten looked cold, frightened and hungry. Someone must have left it there to die. The little girl felt her heart being crushed by the thought of someone abandoning a defenseless kitten in the street, where dogs, children and cars can kill it.

Without thinking twice, she took the kitten with her and went home. "Daddy, daddy, look! someone left a kitten on the street!" she told her father as she showed him the kitten. Her father looked at the kitten and then at her with an expression she hasn't seen before. "What the hell are we gonna do with that??" He roared at her. She jumped, frightened. "Take it back! We can't have anymore animals in this house! Do you understand me??" She was shaking as the kitten continued to cry in her hands.

Reluctantly, she took the kitten back to the bushes. "I'm sorry...." she whispered as she put it down. "I can't help you." She was crying. The kitten started to meow again. as if saying, "Don't leave me." She got up, and ran home. trying her best to ignore the cries for help of the little kitten, abandoned in the bushes.

The next morning, as she was walking down her street, she passed by the same bushes. She was horrified by what she saw. The kitten, the small kitten she showed her father the night before, lay on the gutter, dead. Ran over by a car no doubt. The little girl began crying again. She cried for her cowardice, she cried because she knew she could have done something. She cried because a life was snuffed because of her. She felt guilty and responsible for the death of the kitten. She continued to cry..

Today, that little girl has grown up. The memory of the dead kitten still haunts her. And she tries her best to make it up to the kitten, gone too soon. She rescues and feeds and volunteers for shelters. The rescuing part, she does secretly so as not to spark her father's anger.

I wish there were more people like this little girl. The world needs more heroes.