Saturday's Storyteller: "It all started with the escape from the zoo."

by Belinda Roddie

It all started with the escape from the zoo. It ended when they took Coffee, my beloved panther cub, away from my quaint little condo on the corner of modern suburbia.

I had named her Coffee because I liked them both black. She liked to play with the loose strings of my tweed jacket, as well as any hair strands that snuck away from my fiancée's head. I made enough money to buy her raw steak every day, stripping it into ribbons so they could eat them easier. After all, she had just been weaned from her mother, and so she was eager to do some hunting of her own.

She was my little panther. My beautiful creature of the wild. And as she curled into my lap while I watched "Rottweilers and Rescued Souls" reruns, I adored her.

Coffee's real name, according to the zookeeper, was Lucy, which wasn't nearly as fitting. And as they caged her up and loaded her into the van, the older man asked me if I was willing to go to federal prison for this.

"Why?" I demanded. "Is it really a felony to adopt an adorable wildcat?"

According to United States law, it was. Coffee was considered "exotic." Meanwhile, I was just a nobody who wore bad suits and had a spouse-to-be who was already considering returning her ring.

Needless to say, I decided against jail and bought a year-long ticket to the zoo the next day.

This week's prompt was provided by Chris Morton.