Cold…It’s cold…BOOOOOOM…The rain…It’s...Cold. I look up at the dark clouds with blurry eyes, my fur wet and matted. I turn my head towards the mouth of the alleyway, open my mouth and... my eyes snap open, shortly forgetting to breathe. I look around and sigh in relief quietly. I see the familiar white room filled with toys and bedding for all the other cats in this room. I don’t actually know any of their names, I think they introduced themselves but I didn’t bother remembering their names. They always left me alone anyways. Since I am not going to sleep anytime soon, I stand up and jump out of my little bed. I hit the floor and stretch, hearing my bones pop and crack and feel satisfied afterward. “Cupcake," a cat yawned tiredly,” where are you going?” I turn around to see Ellie, an old cat who has taken care of me since I got to this place. “Nowhere,” I replied,” I just going to take a walk, go back to sleep.” “If you’re sure,” she said with concern and grogginess,” Just remember to be back before they come in and don’t wander out so far. Remember what happened last time.” “Yeah, yeah, I promise,” I said, then muttered under my breath, “How could I forget that experience?” I walk to the wall then move a stuff animal, where a hidden hole is, that only I can fit through, and go in and out to the outside world. The sky is black when I get into the parking lot. I take a stroll around town, careful to avoid any people. Only bad things come from humans. Last time I went out here, some kids found me and they thought ‘Hey, do you know what’s funny, let’s throw rocks at a cat. That’s how I got this scar on my eye. I don’t really mind it, just other people do, everyone except Ellie. She didn’t ask what happened. She just cleaned me and took care of me and I promised myself I would do the same.  I take in the atmosphere and look to the sky to see that the orange of the sun is starting to creep up into the black of the sky. “Guess that my cue to go back,” I whisper, already missing my time outside. Just as I get inside and get all the dirt off me, a person appears in the room. Some of the cats go to the human, including Ellie, but I pull her back. The human went down to her knees, put down the bowls of food for us, and started petting us one by one, while making ridiculous faces and noises. I put my body up to Ellie so she could not pet her. When the human got to us and tried to pet us, I hissed and scooted further back. She didn’t seem to get the message so when she tried to pet Ellie, I clawed at her, just barely missing her on purpose. When someone hurts a human, you never see them again. After she left, all the other cats started hissing at me. “Why did you do that” “You could have been nicer” “You’ll never get adopted with that attitude” “They’ll never get adopted ever, have you seen the scar on her eye and her freaky, two direction eyes” Just when I was about to jump on them, claws out, people started to flood in. It is just as you would imagine it, cats being picked up and kids screaming in our ears. It was going as usual, with everyone ignoring us, when a human suddenly walked towards our direction and to my surprise, sat down and did not touch us. Just looked at us and smiled patiently and contently. This happened every day for a week. One day, Ellie complained, “Cupcake, come on, it has been a week and she hasn’t done anything to us. Can’t I just go up to her?” “I guess, it’s fine, but I am going with you," I agreed hesitantly. We both got up and slowly wandered to the woman in the white sundress. She extended her hands towards us so we could sniff them. She smelled like vanilla and pine trees. After sniffing her hand, Ellie walked forward and laid with her head on the woman’s knee. I did the same after a couple of minutes. I closed my eyes and felt less cold than I usually did. After that, we started to come to her a little more but one day, she did not come. We waited and waited and waited but on the third day, we started to lose hope. “I’m sure she’ll come,” Ellie said optimistically. “I don’t”, I stopped myself there, I don’t want to see Ellie down in the dumps so I replied softly,”Yeah, I’m sure she will.” It has been a week since we last seen the woman in the white dress. The humans working came in as usual but this time after she left she came in with two boxes. All the cats perked their heads up; it was rare that any of us would be adopted. She started in our direction and I looked around to see if there were any cats around us, but there weren’t any other cats. I did not fight when she put me in the box, still reeling from the shock that I was being adopted, with Ellie no less. I wondered who would adopt us when I was handed to another person and smelled a familiar scent. It couldn’t be! I looked through one of the holes in the box and saw her. It was the women in the white sundress, holding Ellie’s and my boxes. The scent of vanilla and pine trees filled the air and I finally felt safe. I was going to my new home with my favorite cat and person in the world. As I fell asleep on the way to our new home, all I could think about was how I was no longer cold. I was just so incredibly warm.