Fern

✨ She watched the car pull away — and she’s been waiting ever since ✨

I remember the moment I realized I’d been left. One second I was in a car, thinking I still belonged to someone, and the next… the door closed behind me, and the engine started. I ran after it, my paws slipping on the pavement, my voice cracking as I cried out. But the car didn’t slow. It didn’t turn. It didn’t look back.

I panicked. I ran straight to the ShopRite entrance, weaving through carts and legs, begging anyone to notice me. I pressed myself against the doors every time they opened, hoping the person I loved would be on the other side. People stepped around me. Some frowned. Some whispered. But no one reached down. No one helped. No one asked why a trembling calico was crying at the entrance like her whole world had just disappeared.

When the crowds thinned and the cold crept in, I didn’t know where to go. I kept calling out until my voice was small and tired. Eventually, I crawled under a dumpster — the only place that felt like it couldn’t hurt me. I curled into the shadows, shaking, trying to understand how a life can change so completely in a single moment.

That’s where they found me. A frightened girl with a crooked little lipstick‑smudge marking on her mouth — a tiny, silly detail that somehow survived everything I’d just been through. Maybe that’s what made someone finally stop. Maybe they saw something worth saving.

Now I’m safe, warm, and trying to believe that being abandoned wasn’t the end of my story. I’m not shy — I still step forward, still hope, still want to be seen. I’m just looking for the person who won’t walk away this time. Someone who will choose me and keep choosing me, long after the parking lot is only a memory.

I’ve survived being left behind. I’ve survived being ignored. Now I’m ready for a home where I never have to run after anyone again.