[OVER] Journey into the Wild

[Cats of the Sun]

Loner || Male || Warrior
|| Colored by Tigeria ||

Contest Begins October, 10th 2:20 pm CST || Contest Ends October, 17th 2:20 pm CST
Should I not be here to close Time Stamps will be used to end the contest.

This cat has been spotted wondering about the area.
He is an edited cat and has a bandanna and was born with his bobbed tail. The Tail is a breedable edit and will pass down to his kittens.

To win this cat you need to create two responses to the questions provided about how he gained his bandanna and why he is out wondering the wilds in the first place.
The length doesn't matter, it can be as long or short as you prefer, so long as it answers the questions posed. Please answer both in separate paragraphs.

Prompt 1

He's been out here so long he doesn't remember how he got his treasured bandanna around his neck. He's had it as long as he can remember.
How did he obtain this treasured item?

Prompt 2

He started this journey with a mission, he's forgotten most of it along the way. Perhaps you can help him remember.
How did he end up in the wilds?

[b]Username:[/b]

[b]Prompt 1 Response:[/b] Type the response to prompt 1 here please.

[b]Prompt 2 Response:[/b] Type the response to prompt 2 here please.

 

[Cats of the Sun]

AND ITS OPEN!!

 

[AlicornPlayhouse]

Username: AlicornPlayhouse

Prompt 1 Response: He got the bandana from a twoleg kit who would feed him. The kit wore a bandana. One day when visiting the kit never showed up, but his bandana was there! The tom took the bandana to return it to the kit, who died in a car crash, but he doesn't know this.

Prompt 2 Response: He's traveling the woods, seeing as the kit often went 'camping', though he doesn't know where, and is searching for him.  

[xKOVAKtheWOLFx]

Username: xKOVAKtheWOLFx

Prompt 1 Response: he found another cat out in the wild who told him about how some cats were kittypets and lived amongst twolegs. he was always a curious kit, and explored the twoleg place, put in the care of a young boy who put his bandanna on the kit. the tom refused to lose it after

Prompt 2 Response: he was always a wild cat. when little, he explored the twoleg place to find a young kit who "adopted" him, but the boy moved away, and so the tom had to find his way back to his roots  

[NatiStorm]

Username: Natitsuri

Prompt 1 Response: This Tom was born a wild cat close to a twoleg settlement. His father would occasionally go and hunt in the settlement when food was scarce. On one such occasion his father brought back a bandanna to help keep the smallest of their litter warm during the cold winter. In the spring the Tom and his siblings used the piece of fabric for pouncing practice. His mother always warned them about playing on the river ridge line but they loved the added danger. Until the day it was his turn and when he pounced the bandanna, he and the cloth went tumbling off the ledge and plunged into the river. It carried him far away and honestly he was lucky he didn't drown. When he pulled himself from the river, he had lost the bandanna, but he found it stuck on some branches downstream. Refusing to return home without it he risked the river a second time to retrieve the precious bandanna.

Prompt 2 Response: For the first few months after the river washed him away, he worked hard to get back to his small family. He was determined to bring the bandanna back to his smallest brother before winter, despite how lost he was. But the longer he searched the more he focused on just staying alive and the less he thought about getting back to his family. Eventually he forgot about his family altogether. He knew nothing except loneliness and how to survive.  

[Clover Blossom]

Username: Clover Blossom

Prompt 1 Response: He's had this bandanna for as long as he could remember. He was just a young kit in a world of two legs. He was half starved and his paw was injured by fellow cats who were pets to the two legs. It was raining hard that night. He limped slowly into a nearby alley seeking food from whatever the two legs threw out. If he was lucky, it would be something fresh. But mostly, it half-rotted food or something that smelled horrible. He only made it half-way to the stack of boxes before collapsing on the cold wet concrete. The last thing he saw before passing out was a blurred figure hovering over him. When he awoke. The small kitten was covered with what looked like something the two legs wore. But, it didn't smell like a two leg. When he looked around, he spotted an old brown tabby with dark brown streaks across his fur. There where scratched across his left eye. He told the kit of his story. The bandanna was his since he was the kit's age. The old tabby looked after the young kit over time. Showing him good places to get food, how to avoid the troublesome pets and some of the best spots to bask in the sun. One day when the kit returned home, he found the old tabby laying on his bed. His breathing was heavy and raspy. "I want you to have this young one," he said as he pulled out the bandanna from beneath him. "It was a big part of my life. Like you where" The kit shook his head. But before he could speak, the old tabby grew quiet. The kit sat there until the sun sunk over the large, tall two legs homes. It was with a heavy heart, that he left the alley that he called home. The bandanna wrapped around his neck.


Prompt 2 Response: He wandered the two legs world for a long time until reaching a tall metal fence that the two legs used to keep out the wildlife. It didn't take him long to find a small hole that other cats used to enter and leave the two legs world. Once outside the fence, he turned around. Taking one last glance at what he once called his home before jumping through a large bush. This is the wild the tabby told him stories of. It was much greener than he has expected. And less noisy. It was easier for him to breath. "So this is the wild," He said looking around. "Well, I might as well get going. There's a great big world for me to explore."  

[Blinded By Silence]

Username: Blinded By Silence

Prompt 1 Response: His mother had been a kittypet all her life. Loved and cherished by her old and withered twoleg, his mother wore this bandanna proudly as a symbol of loyalty to her. But one day when she was out sunning herself on the fence, she met a handsome tom. She ran off with him, went exploring and tasted mouse for the first time in her life. It was a grand adventure, but the kittypet missed her home, her twoleg. So she returned. But when she pawed at the door and cried for her sweet old twoleg, no one came to open the flap. She lay outside the door for days, until at last she turned her back on the house she grew up in and went to find the tom who was the father to the kits she carried.

Moons passed, and he was no where to be found. His mother gave birth two three kits, alone. She did her best to care for them, but they were weak. She bolstered them with stories of their father and of her twoleg home. But it didn't help, he was the only one to survive. One day, he isn't sure if it was because she got lost, or hurt, or if his mother finally just gave up, but one day, she shook off her bandanna and left it over him. She left and never came back.

Prompt 2 Response: As soon as the stubby-tailed tom realized his mother wasn't going to return, he took the bandanna and kept moving. Remembering the doubt his mother felt, that she wasn't strong enough for the wild and that was why his father had left her, the young tom was determined to prove him wrong. What his mother had been, he could not control. But he knew deep inside that he was a wild cat, built strong and durable. One day, he'd find his mange-ridden father and show him just how strong he was, despite his kittypet roots.  

[NymiiNym]

Username: Nymphiea

Prompt 1 Response: Applefreckle was not always a wild cat -- he was once a kittypet, raised by a kittypet mother. Previously bestowed a name only a kittypet would have, he belonged to a family who often bred bob-tailed cats for sale. His mother, however, was a curious sort and found herself outdoors when the youngest two-leg left the door open too long. This adventure lasted a week and before her two-legs found her she had spent a considerable amount of that week with a handsome longer she had grown fond of.

It was safe to say when her two-legs discovered she was pregnant with an unknown cat they were fairly disappointed. He was born in a litter of five and immediately given to a shelter once he was old enough. Adopted to a loving two-leg family, he was pampered and dressed fairly often in scarves and sometimes a suffocating scarf or two. Despite his hatred for being dressed, Applefreckle enjoyed the presence of their youngest two-leg, who often let him play outside with her.

Unfortunately, his wild roots were deep seated and hard to take away. He began to find it harder and harder to let them bring him back inside the box they called home. His only reasoning for allowing them to coax him back inside was his affection for the female child. She was dear to him, although he couldn't pinpoint why.

Sadly, the family suffered a grand loss when the little girl was diagnosed with a terminal illness. When she passed he found no reason to stay anymore. So, one day, he just left, leaping out the open window with himself and the red bandanna she had last put on him.

Prompt 2 Response: Going by Red during his time as a loner, he didn't really know why he felt the pull to the wild, but he did. It was a hard transition, regardless of his natural aptitude for the outdoors. He had to learn how to hunt and survive on his own. All he knew, however, was that he had no place being in a two-leg den. He wanted whatever it was that had drawn his mother countless times.

When he discovers a clan for the first time then it'll make sense -- he was born to be a clan cat. It'll fit. The wild always called to him, but there was a loneliness in being.... well, alone. He wanted a family. Someone to fight for. What pushed him to the wilderness was a need to find a family that fit him. A family not two-legs and not a sad cat inside a box.  

[caffeinecraving]

Username: Caffeinecraving

Prompt 1 Response: What day was it again? Ah right... Full moon day... that meant it was time to move on from his cozy spot near the trash cans behind the up-walker food place. He headed out to the hard black path and watched the rumbling monsters as they headed by. He caught his reflection in one of their shiny pelts. What a handsome tom cat he was. In his spiffy bandanna. He looked down at the material around his neck and his mind wandered.

"SHOO!"

He purred and rubbed against the up walker's legs only to be pushed, roughly away. That was how they played, those silly up walkers. He picked himself back up ad started back toward the adult and heard them call him again. "Shoo! Shoo Cat shoo!" But then they slammed the door in his face. He twitched his whiskers and with a sigh he moved on to the next home. It was the home of a young woman who owned about 20 cats herself... But she would never let him in the home. He rowled at the door, looking to see if she would bring him food. He got the feeling that she liked him.. though....she had never called him by name like other upwalkers had, so he didnt know how to feel about that.

He was just about to move on when he heard the door open. HE chirped and walked a bit taller until he saw her. She was leaking!!! She sat down on the cement stairs and he rushed to her. Headbutting her cheeks, licking the salty water. She didnt smell sick. He chirped again. She smiled at him and pat his head. "Stay here... " She stood up and headed into the house. As he waited he listened. The house was eerily quiet. And all the cat scents were old. He sniffed again to be sure.... There were no cats in the house?! What happened to the 20 some that lived here... Bubbles... and Frisco! She came back and sat back down. "Now... before you eat you need a napkin so you dont get all messy." She tied his plaid napkin around his neck. He rubbed against her hand in thanks. She set the wet food in front of him and spoke to him while he ate but then a door opened and she jerked to standing. "Oh no!" She went and looked to find another up walker. "Shoo! Ok Shoo! You have to go... they cant see you here!" She snatched the food, he protested but she waved at him. "Shoo!" Disappearing back inside... she never came back out... he waited for her... and came back a few times... but even her scent was gone from the home.

Shoo was snapped out of his thoughts by cold water spraying up onto him. He shook himself. His stomach rumbling he crossed the thunderpath on his way to swing by houses and see if there was any food left out.

Prompt 2 Response: Shoo found himself in the middle of the woods. He had scented a cat he thought he had known before. But he lost the scent and now he was here. He had two choices... continue on... or return back. There was nothing left for him back... but the same damp box... that rested next to the trash cans outside a sushi bar. A life of pawing through trash... or, he could find the scent of cats he was chasing and live on mice, he had already caught a few to fill his crying stomach. He licked his lips. Glancing at his napkin he looked forward. There was nothing left for him... not back there... and so he continued on into the wilds.  

[Bakphoon Rawr]

Username: Bakphoon Rawr

Prompt 1 Response:
Mother had a very rough start in her early adulthood, already with kits and bound to what seemed to be like an endless maze of enormous, smoking two-leg nests (factories) to this little family. Frost was what she called herself, and she was quite starved but nonetheless attempting to move her two little kits, Sunny and Hare, to a safer environment. Unfortunately for Hare, she fell quite ill very quickly, but not without a very devoted brother to urge her on to keep up with mother. The very next thing Sunny could recall was when he and Hare were a moon old, and a terrible storm where he'd lost sight of Frost and Hare. The rain drowned out his tiny voice as he tried to mewl endlessly for them to find him. What had found him instead was what he would come to know as a very friendly, tall she-two-leg who would take him home into her nest.

This two-leg creature kept calling him "Cinnamon", which was definitely not his name, but he came to accept it as a secondary name during his time in her nest. This place was also overwhelming with scents of sweet ingredients. His place to sleep was a small nest with what he would learn to be called a "bandanna" laid on top of it, to which he would sometimes curl up with and act like he was cuddling his sister, Hare. After a quarter of a moon, Sunny finally came up with a name for his two-leg: Milk. He named her as such because she'd provide him with milk, the fur on her head was the color of milk, and she seemed to like adding milk to her food. When he was big enough, Milk had decided that it was so darn cute of Sunny to like the red bandanna so much that she would fit it on him. This made Sunny, or rather Cinnamon at the time, become a sort of "mascot" for her at-home bakery and the color red was perfect for her specialization in red velvet. At first, Sunny did not enjoy the bandanna inhibiting his movements as it was just a little too big for him at the time, but he quickly accepted it when he realized that it brought him more attention and treats.

Prompt 2 Response:
At about eighteen moons old, Sunny had gotten quite used to living with Milk. Two-legs visited their nest more and more often these last few moons and Milk seemed quite happy. This was also the time when the weather was suited well enough for Sunny to sit outside of the nest and greet two-legs at the nest's entrance. Late one Sundown, a stray dog had wandered into Milk and Sunny's territory. This dog was about twice the size of Sunny, but that didn't stop him from defending his territory. The mangy dog wasn't intimidated until Sunny had been too fast on the mutt and scratched him twice on the face. Milk heard this scuffle and immediately shooed the dog away. The following night, just as Sunny was strolling along the sidewalk and peering around the corner to hopefully meet a she-cat he had caught sights of a few days ago, he was instead met with the same stray who didn't hesitate to chase him.

No matter what Sunny attempted to do to get the dog to trip or get further away from him, it kept coming back. He'd tried arguing that he was off his territory and to quit it, but the dog seemed more keen on the chase and capturing a prey item instead. Unfortunately for Sunny, after what seemed a forever's worth of running out of the two-legplace and deep into the woods, he slowed down and caught his breath. Now he was in a totally unknown world to him, but he couldn't go back now, not with that starved stray likely waiting for him to come back. Surely he could stay a night or two in this forest and then come back, right?

The first night away from Milk's nest it poured rain. It washed away all the scent that lead back home. He was confident he knew where to go to find his way back, but he would have to wait in this make-shift den under these tree roots until the weather cleared up. It didn't stop raining until the following day's Sunhigh. His mission was to find his way back to Milk, and after a period of moons had instead managed to find himself deeper into the forests and farther away from home. Now, after many moons of having been lost, his new mission is to hopefully find a new home.  

[Tigeria]

And thats a wrap! This contest is now closed and any entries after this point will be skipped!  

[Tigeria]

After much deliberation the Judge has made a verdict!

There were many outstanding submissions, and I want to thank all of you for your unique perspectives. I loved each and everyone of your responses. This was not an easy contest to judge, I had a hard time just narrowing it down to three to begin with. There were no bad entries all of them would have fit him quite well, and I would have chosen them all, but as it goes there is but one cat and therefore one winner.

And drum roll please!


...



...



And the winner is........

Blinded By Silence

I found your responses to be fascinating as well as leaving me wondering where he will go in regards to the future. I loved how he got his bandanna and what it represented to him. It spoke to me about how he truly felt about this bandanna. It wasn't that it was a keepsake or a cherished memory it was that it was a reminder of what his mother felt looking for his father. I really want to know what he'd do if he came across clan cats, how he deals with the lasting effects of being abandoned, and just what he'll do if confronted by the fact he has kittypet blood coursing through his veins.

Please take your new boy to the certing thread! He will be certed and dropped when the time is right.