CatsCast

Escape Artists, Inc.
CatsCast

CatsCast publishes fun speculative cat stories. We hope that each story leaves its cat-loving listeners a little happier -- or at least amused or hopeful -- after listening than they were before.

  1. CatsCast 24: Queen of the Mouse Riders

    6 DE JUL.

    CatsCast 24: Queen of the Mouse Riders

    Author: Annie Reed Narrator: Summer Brooks Host: Laura Pearlman Audio Producer: Wilson Fowlie This story originally appeared in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. Queen of the Mouse Riders  by Annie Reed Gurgling yowls echoed off the tiled floor in Sarah’s bathroom. Bounced off the ceiling, gaining strength, and intruded on what was turning out to be a very, very nice dream featuring the star of a movie she’d watched just before bed. In the dream, the star turned his incredibly expressive eyes in Sarah’s direction, smiled his best enigmatic smile, and said, “Pardon me, darling, but is that your cat?” (In the dream he’d turned British. She happened to know he’d been born and raised in the Bronx. Dreams were just plain weird sometimes.) “Yes,” she said. “She’s apparently caught a mouse.” Starlight the Cat had a battle cry like a two-note yodeler gargling mouthwash. She reserved that particular cry for whenever she caught a mouse. Or something that looked like a mouse. Or a mouse-shaped stuffed toy. Most of the time she’d only caught one of her toys. Thank goodness. But on at least on memorable occasion she’d interrupted a visit from Sarah’s mother by presenting a live mouse as the third course for their lunch date. Sarah’s mother was deathly afraid of mice. Read the rest on Patreon. Visit us at https://escapeartists.net/catscast/. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 license.

    54min
  2. CatsCast 22: Blood Water

    5 DE JAN.

    CatsCast 22: Blood Water

    Blood Water by J.A. Bryson The blood on Zip’s hands is dried the color of rust and sticks like clay under her fingernails. Mostly, it isn’t hers. Mostly, it belongs to the man she shivved, the one who mistook her for an easy mark. Zip is gray-eyed and hunger-slight. She’s a lot of things – fast, fierce, speechless since birth – but she isn’t easy. The old timers know this. The man waiting at the pits to grab her while she took a piss, he did not know this. He’s a newcomer. His people came when jets rained fire on their homeland. They have no code. They left their children and their old timers to burn. Their language is violence. One needn’t words to speak it. Outside camp, Zip finds shade in a stand of scraggly pines with peeling bark and sun-bleached needles. She drags her palms over the parched earth. The blood remains. It doesn’t flake or rub away. She thinks to spit on it, to make a paste, to paint its warning on her sunken cheeks, but her tongue is swollen with thirst. She hasn’t spit to spare. If it doesn’t rain soon, her band will strike up camp. Better to move than to choke on dust – to become dust. She closes her eyes and swallows. Her heart beats too fast. The man she shivved will die. Serves him right for making her sweat. Propped against a tree, Zip drifts. She doesn’t hear Cat come. She wakes to his rough tongue grazing her knuckles. Groggily, she peeps an eye. The sun is not where she remembers it. Read the rest on Patreon. Visit us at https://escapeartists.net/catscast/. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 license.

    24min
  3. CatsCast 21 Preview: Kindly, Stop for Me

    TEMPORADA 1, TRAILER DO EPISÓDIO 21

    CatsCast 21 Preview: Kindly, Stop for Me

    December, 2023. Author: K. M. Veohongs Narrator: Dave Robison Host: Laura Pearlman Audio Producer: Dave Robison This story originally appeared inTranslunar Traveler's Lounge, February 2022 A content note: there is some death in this one. Kindly, Stop for Me by K.M. Veohongs I rise from my spot by the window in Room 126 of the Sunny Glades Home for Health and Rehabilitation. The sun set an hour ago, so it’s no great loss. My front paws extend, claws out, before I shift my weight forward and kick out each hind leg. I don’t have the range of motion I once did — everything creaks and clicks now — but since the moment I selected my first feline host, I found there is nothing quite so satisfying as a good stretch. I jump down and land on the tiled floor, hard. I wish they’d carpet the rooms, but that’s hardly sanitary, is it? The hop up onto the bed is more difficult still. We’re in the hospice wing, of course, and these beds are tall. I’ve still got the ups to make it, but it’s a near thing. Finding a replacement body should be on the top of my to-do list. This one is rather past its natural expiration date, and if I don’t find a new host before it gives out completely, I’ll be as rudderless as the souls I’m supposed to help. It’s only that I’m rather attached to the form I’m currently inhabiting. I’ve been Archimedes for so long now, I’m not sure I remember how to be anyone else. Read (or listen to) the rest on Patreon. Visit us at https://escapeartists.net/catscast/. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 license.

    4min
  4. CatsCast 20: Re-release: The Cat

    01/11/2023

    CatsCast 20: Re-release: The Cat

    Author: Nicole Walsh Narrator: Matt Dovey Host: Laura Pearlman Audio Producers: Wilson Fowlie and Dave Robison This month we’re re-running The Cat by Nicole Walsh, which ran on our patron-only feed in June, 2022. Content note: although it’s not a major theme, there is some domestic abuse in this story. This story originally appeared in Teleport Magazine in May, 2021. The Cat by Nicole Walsh The cat followed him home. Tomas Shine spent three and a half minutes in the stairwell hyperventilating. He heard Mrs Helen Acres, the widow from Unit Two, clatter and batter her way out her door, shopping bags in hand. She spotted the cat outside the stairway and reversed soundlessly into her unit. Tomas sucked in a ragged breath, filling his lungs to the brim, and looked up. The cat waited on the far side of the glass door. Its tail lashed back and forth. Tomas used the rail to heave himself upright, then crept down the stairs. He opened the door. The cat stood, butt shooting into the air, tail upright like a comma. It mewed. Tomas stepped aside. The cat led the way up the stairs. Tomas walked slowly, careful not to step on it. His hand was shaking so badly he couldn’t get the key into the lock. His work bag slid awkwardly down his arm. Sweat pooled at his armpits, licking wet trails past his ribs. The cat pressed into his leg. A small, frightened noise slipped from his throat.  “I’m sorry,” he gasped. “I’m trying.” Nervous sweat coated his fingertips. The keys slipped free. They landed on the tiled floor with a loud clang, startling the cat. Tomas pressed into the wall, hand raised defensively.  “Sorry!” The cat stared, tail low and flicking. Tomas crouched slowly, extending a shaking hand for the keys. For a sickening moment he was almost eye to eye with the creature. Tomas rose. He slowly and deliberately inserted the correct key into the lock and opened his door.  A small white shape flittered past his brown work shoes.  It was done. Tomas Shine had a cat. Read (or listen to) the rest on Patreon. Visit us at https://escapeartists.net/catscast. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 license.

    40min
  5. CatsCast 19 Preview: Short Tales: Memories

    TEMPORADA 1, TRAILER DO EPISÓDIO 19

    CatsCast 19 Preview: Short Tales: Memories

    Description Authors: Nathan Susnik and Monica Joyce Evans Narrators: George Fowlie and Sandy Parsons Host: Laura Pearlman Audio Producer: Dave Robison The Tan One by Nathan Susnik originally appeared in Shoreline of Infinity. Alligators by Monica Joyce Evans originally appeared in Nature Futures The Tan One by Nathan Susnik Some days I pick the white pill. Other days it’s the black. For some reason or another, I prefer the brown pill on Tuesdays. Today, feels like it’s going to be one of my bad days. So, I pinch the tan pill between my thumb and index finger, flick it into my mouth and take a slug of water. It catches halfway down, but when I swallow again, it dislodges quickly enough. As it hits my stomach, I’m already more optimistic. My cat rubs against my leg. “Oh, hello Lionel,” I say. Abyssinians have ticked fur. It looks like one color from afar, but if examined closely, it’s actually bands of light and dark shades. I bend down, leaning hard on my cane (it’s really more of a modern crutch) and stroke him. Pain shoots out of my lower back, wrapping around my hip. But I clench my jaw, ignoring it, running my hand over the cat’s back. He purrs, and perhaps today won’t be so bad after all. Read or listen to the rest on Patreon. Visit us at https://escapeartists.net/catscast/ Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 license.

    2min

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Sobre

CatsCast publishes fun speculative cat stories. We hope that each story leaves its cat-loving listeners a little happier -- or at least amused or hopeful -- after listening than they were before.

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