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.

CatsCast 26: The Gingerbread House 10/30/2024

CatsCast 25: The Invention of a Cat 08/04/2024

CatsCast 24: Queen of the Mouse Riders 07/06/2024

CatsCast 23 Preview: The Best Way to Procure Breakfast 03/06/2024

CatsCast 22: Blood Water 01/05/2024

CatsCast 21 Preview: Kindly, Stop for Me 12/23/2023

CatsCast 20: Re-release: The Cat 11/01/2023

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 . Visit us at . Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 license. /episode/index/show/517c6bec-81cc-498a-86df-3a668eba6a93/id/28481888

CatsCast 19 Preview: Short Tales: Memories 10/04/2023

CatsCast 18: Match.Cat 09/04/2023

CatsCast 17 Preview: The Absolutely True and Correct Account of the Honorable Mlle. Cassandra von Archambault, Affectionately and Begrudgingly Known to Her Friends and Family as Echo 08/04/2023

CatsCast 17 Preview: The Absolutely True and Correct Account of the Honorable Mlle. Cassandra von Archambault, Affectionately and Begrudgingly Known to Her Friends and Family as Echo August, 2023. Author: Jolie Toomajan Narrator: Kat Day Host: Laura Pearlman Audio Producer: Dave Robison This story will appear in Posthaste Manor by Tenebrous Press in October 2023. Content Note: This is a horror story. There’s a little gore. No cats are harmed in this story, but I make no such promises regarding the humans. The Absolutely True and Correct Account of the Honorable Mlle. Cassandra von Archambault, Affectionately and Begrudgingly Known to Her Friends and Family as Echo As told to Jolie Toomajan Let it be known I only care because of Mother. She is a good Mother who says I am her little Mar Lean Deet Trick, which makes no sense but that is fine. Motheris not stupid, but she can't see It the way I can. Sometimes Mother can feel It; she will walk into a room and shiver, curl her nose at the burning smell, and press her hand to the walls above the light switches. Then I will look over at the corner and It will be there, mouths upon mouths upon mouths and all of those mouths are edged with the smoldering orange of burning paper. I stare until It leaves, and I don’t blink so It knows I mean business. Sometimes Mother can't feel It at all, even when It undulates over the back of the sofa and sniffs her hair. When It drapes over her buttoned headboard at night, I almost die from fright, but It lets me chase It away. I worry about how I could protect her if It decided to ignore me, until he comes along. Reader, he is very stupid. His shoes smell like seaweed and so does the hair on his arms, and he eats terrible food—tofu and sprouts and entire garlic cloves in vinegar sauces that make your eyes tear. Healthy, he says. As if any diet without blood could be healthy. Stupid. Mother likes him. This is disappointing, but she has other qualities (for example, her feet are lovely and cool and she keeps her fingernails at the exact right length for relaxing scratches and the song she sings for me is not too annoying). Read (or listen to) the rest . /episode/index/show/517c6bec-81cc-498a-86df-3a668eba6a93/id/27655848

CastCast 16: Don’t Mess with the Boss Cat 06/05/2023

CatsCast 15: The Tenth Life 05/04/2023

CastCast 14 Preview: A Feline Familiar by Rayne Hall 04/04/2023

CatsCast 13: A Routine Vet Visit 03/04/2023

CatsCast 12: Mandy and Lulu Welcome Walter by S. M. Hallow 02/04/2023

January 2023 Metacast 01/31/2023

CatsCast 11 Preview: Headspace by Beth Cato 01/04/2023

CatsCast 11 Preview: Headspace by Beth Cato Author: Beth Cato Narrator: Valerie Valdes Host: Laura Pearlman Audio Producer: Wilson Fowlie This story originally appeared in the Cats in Space anthology, 2015. Headspace by Beth Cato Something was alive in the crawlspace above aft berthing, and damn it all, it was Akiko's job to slither up there and clear it out. Desperate times called for desperate measures. In this case, illegal drugs. With fumbling fingers, she unwrapped a tranq patch and slapped it on beneath the waistband of her jumpsuit. She braced herself against the wall for a long moment, breathing through the terror that came at the very thought of that narrow tunnel. Ninety-nine percent of the time, she got by just fine. Haulers like the Tolleson had nice, wide hallways. Her crew berth was as large or larger than what she'd get in some residential stack down in Kyoto. Enviro duty meant sys-monitoring most days, and filters could be changed through hall or room access. Then the one percent moments came along and slapped her upside the head. Her heart rate slowed as the tranq did its thing. The overwhelming sense of doom diminished. Thank God that whoever busted into her room last week and stole half her stuff missed the tranqs hidden beneath a floor panel. She stared up the ladder to the hatch in the ceiling. "Let's do this." The work chit had described several passengers' complaints of moving noises in the ceiling. Akiko had her suspicions. The ship's last hop involved the transport of about fifty small animals for a colony on Capulet. The critters had been too temperature sensitive for the freight locker, so they'd been given a berth of their own. If anything had been flagged as missing, it wasn't Akiko's place to know. The air shaft was about a meter in diameter—big enough that she could pivot around if necessary instead of backing up. Even blissed-out, she took comfort in that wiggle room. Akiko tapped her comm. Lights flicked on along the length of the tunnel. She squinted. Something moved at the far end. Her tools clanked against the tunnel as she crawled along, her knees tapping hollow. The thing came towards her. That's when she realized how incredibly stupid she'd been. She'd been so freaked out about the tunnel, she hadn't thought about what might be in there. Any creature going to a colony world likely possessed some genetic modifications, whether to cope with the environment, boost agriculture, or poison intruders. The creature entered the light. "Damn," Akiko muttered. The ginger kitten had an odd, ambling gait that showed the sharp jut of its hips. God, the thing was half dead, and way too small. A runt, maybe, or just plain wasting away. Its mouth opened in a silent meow. A stubby tail stood upright as a flagpole. Read the rest . Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 license. /episode/index/show/517c6bec-81cc-498a-86df-3a668eba6a93/id/25500729

CatsCast 10: The Stray by Christina Westcott 12/04/2022

CatsCast 9 Preview: The Kipnibbles Singularity 11/01/2022

CatsCast 8: Love Tokens by Constance Fay 10/31/2022

CatsCast 8: Love Tokens by Constance Fay Halloween 2022. Author: Constance Fay Narrator: Tatiana Gray Host: Laura Pearlman Audio Producer: Dave Robison Love Tokens is a CatsCast original. Content note: This story includes a little light dismemberment. It’s fine. Love Tokens by Constance Fay The cat in my living room has a human finger in her mouth and love in her eyes. This is disturbingly wrong for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I don’t have a cat. Second, I live on a third-floor apartment and the windows are closed. Third, and it bears repeating, human finger. It’s the third day in a row the dark-furred brindled cat has appeared, with increasingly heavy body parts dangling from her jaws. Day one was an ear. I think. It’s hard to tell once it’s been in a cat’s mouth for a while. When I called the police, they stared at the ear, then at me. The cat, by then, was long gone--to wherever she goes when she’s not breaking into my home with human parts. I tried to follow her but I looked away for a second and she had vanished. The cops clearly didn’t believe my cat story. I haven’t even been able to capture a photo of the critter. I’m probably on a watch list somewhere now. I didn’t even tell my boyfriend. Enough people think I am crazy. Day two was a toe, polished with a pop of bright pink. Something about that polish twisted a bit in my chest. It was so very normal. I think I even have that same color, called something saucy like Petticoat Pink or Punky Petal. The cops didn’t even show up on day two. They asked me to drop the toe off at the station which led to me driving around town with a toe in a baggy full of ice, terrified of getting pulled over for a speeding ticket because how do you explain cargo like that? Now it’s day three and the furry little muzzle is wrapped around what appears to be an index finger. Read the rest . Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 license. /episode/index/show/517c6bec-81cc-498a-86df-3a668eba6a93/id/24778263

CatsCast 0007: Four Stories About … Cats? 10/04/2022

CatsCast 6 preview: Magnificent Maurice, or the Flowers of Immortality] 09/04/2022

CatsCast 5: Daisies 08/04/2022

CatsCast 4 preview: The Cat 07/01/2022

CatsCast 4 preview: The Cat Laura Pearlman (Host), Kat Day (Front cover photograph), Matt Dovey (Back cover art), Dave Robison (Audio production) 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 the rest at https://www.patreon.com/posts/68138129/ Visit us at: Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 license. /episode/index/show/517c6bec-81cc-498a-86df-3a668eba6a93/id/23575127

CatsCast 3: What Cats (and Dragons) Do 06/04/2022

CatsCast 2 preview: Tin Opener 05/04/2022

CatsCast 1: The Cat Lady and the Petitioner 04/01/2022

CatsCast Preview 03/23/2022

From the Archives: CatsCast 341 (April Fools 2021) - Bargain by Sarah Gailey 03/21/2022

From the Archives: CatsCast 289 (2020 April Fool's episode) - The Thing in the Basement by Gerri Leen 03/21/2022

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