mudcat mikey

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Short Stories #1 to #200

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #001 Icky's Gold
Icky is an Australian gold miner who encounters wild animals, harsh environment, weather and fellow miners while seeking a fortune in gold.

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Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #002 Spar's Flock
Spar is an African vulture that flies over the plains, eating everything it can find, including impala, zebra, rhino and giraffe, while it tries to survive as the leader of its flock of resilient and wiry birds.

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Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #003 Rocky's Treasure
Rocky is a scuba diver who made a pretty good living from diving for treasure chests that had been on sunken ships.  That part of the world near Key West, Florida had been a very common navigation route for Spanish vessels transporting gold from America back to Spain.  After discovering a trunk of gold doubloons on the sea floor, Rocky was attacked on the way back to the boat.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #004 Beagle's Tale
This is a story about a wandering beagle that has many different owners and names as it experiences numerous adventures, thrills, chills and difficulties, but endures everything that life throws at it.  This beagle is the definition of a survivor.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #005 Bone's Clan
Bone is a cave dweller in ancient times trying to exist by dealing with large and small dinosaurs, other fierce creatures, fellow cave people and generally poor physical/oral hygiene.  Bone's name was derived from the practice of eating the marrow from the bones of the slayed animals.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #006 Bong's Farm
Bong is a gigantic rooster on a farm where all other the animals and roaming critters are subject to Bong; at least that's how Bong looks at it. Bong felt stronger, more intelligent and more capable than all the other creatures around, including any humans.  Bong was a megalomaniac and was the master of all.  Bong respected Zeke, the owner of farm, but Bong still felt he was more important than Zeke.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #007 Teddy's Run
Teddy is a runner who hopes to win a 1962 Cadillac by running across the United States.  As could be imagined, Teddy "runs" into many challenges along the way, including filth, thirst, hunger, loneliness, injuries, scoffing, bullying and near-death experiences.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #008 Axon's Prize
Axon is a pelican that lives in Monterey, California that spends its time pilfering any shiny objects that cross its path, including fishing reels, lighters, rings, watches, chains, eyeglasses and other choice bits.  For as long as the pelican could remember, things that sparkled had tickled its fancy.  Axon had quite the collection of twinkly things stashed in the large nest of the dead oak tree that was located about a mile inland from the boat marina.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #009 Alfonso's Fishing
Alfonso is a member of a commercial fishing family in Italy, fishing for shellfish, crabs, mollusks, shrimp, eels, squid and lobster.  On one fateful day, a large object was raised from the ocean.  Alfonso awoke at 4:30 am on that Monday morning, and was heading out into the Mediterranean Sea when it happened.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #010 Donte's Era
Donte is a 157 year old dinosaur living in the dinosaur age that eats both other dinosaurs and vegetation, depending on mood, time of day, time of year and current gastrointestinal condition.  Donte had been happily feeding on apples from a tree for 5 hours with no hassles until the pack of riptors approached.  Riptors were particularly aggressive dinosaurs that usually hunted in packs of 3 or 4.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #011 Nanko's Dogsled
Sled dog teams are a valuable commodity in Alaska.  When the snows were falling, some areas had no clear roads.  When no other form of transportation was possible, the sled would always be able to get through.  Nanko runs a dogsled team of 6 dogs in Alaska, on which medical supplies are shuttled between villages, while walruses, bears, snow, disease and bitter cold occasionally make life difficult.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #012 Ceola's Hunger
Ceola the alligator was the result of the first egg to hatch from the pile of eggs that its mother had laid 43 years before.  Ceola is 29 feet long, weighs 617 pounds and devours hundreds of pounds of fish, ducks, turtles, wild boar, porcupines, moose and other alligators, while living in a hidden Florida swamp. The swamp was never seen by human beings, being completely concealed, swampy, muddy and mosquito infested.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #013 Rex's Ocean
It was too late. Unfortunately, Rex had attracted the unwanted attention of a flock of frigate birds that had been flying across the Atlantic Ocean from Miami, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas.  Rex is a partier who fell off a yacht in the Bermuda Triangle and ends up swimming, floating, treading water and basically turning into a wretch from the effects of the sharks, birds, stress, salt water and sunshine.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #014 Echo's Guidance
Echo is a dolphin with more than average intelligence that was rescued from an Atlantic Ocean commercial fishing net and became a surfboard of sorts for a blind surfer named Travis, who would have turned professional, if not for his unfortunate accident.  One day while Echo and Travis were surfing a rare 22-foot wave, one of the pros forgot to bring in their board and chaos ensued.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #015 Rafi's Cave
Rafi is an 8 year old child living on a volcanic island who becomes trapped in a cave when a volcano unexpectedly erupts and covers the child's home and village with lava.  On the 77th day, Rafi awakened to tears again, waking up every day crying.  Rafi was sad and disillusioned and was beginning to give up hope.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #016 Fausto's Nook
Fausto emerged hungry again from its little cave in the coral reef in Bonaire.  For the past 69 years, Fausto had lived there, gradually enlarging the nook to accommodate ever-increasing size.  Fausto is an 810 pound octopus with 177 tentacles, living in the Southern Caribbean, where it devours sting rays, fish, sharks, barracudas, squid, turtles and other octopi.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #017 Aldo's Lockbox
Aldo was driving the 1969 Dodge Charger from Georgia to an island off South Carolina, to stash the lockbox before anyone could discover the vast wealth in the box.  Aldo swerved to avoid the animal in the road and the car went under the surface of the water, down into a deep pool at the bottom of the roaring waterfall.  Aldo opened his eyes to see a huge black snake at the bottom of the pool with a large green bullfrog in its mouth.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #018 Major's Mission
Major is a large and happy 49 pound house cat, resulting from an experimental mix between a Maine Coon cat and a bobcat, also known as a Maine-Bob.  Major's first client was a 101-year old woman who loved to play checkers.  The vet emphasized Major's superior intelligence and its ability to learn quickly.  The old woman was pleased to discover that Major could be taught to play checkers.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #019 Ignacio's Itch
Ignacio jumped from the helicopter at the top of the ski run and landed in the snow as usual.  The impact caused a great shelf of snow to collapse and initiated an avalanche.  Ignacio was going down the mountain with it and had no control over the outcome, which left the skier buried, stuck and unable to move.  Even the strongest person on earth would be unable to move in that situation.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #020 Galen's Brain
Galen is a rare gorilla from Africa that was able to use sign language, speak English and solve complex mathematical expressions.  The gorilla continued studying the formula board in the lab, sleeping on the floor in front of it.  Galen woke up in the middle of the night sometimes to look at the formula board for a while, and then go back to sleep again.  It was clear to Barton and Abigail that the gorilla was obsessed with an equation on the board.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #021 Jacob's Breeze
Jacob is a balloonist who designed and constructed a large floating device, comprised of 3 balloons, each 1,000 feet high.  The plan was to fly from East to West across the U.S. toward California, then to cross the Pacific Ocean.  Jacob floated at a high enough altitude to have room for error if something went wrong.  If the balloon started losing elevation quickly, there would still be plenty of elevation to find a solution before crashing, except for the unexpected hurricane toward which the balloon was now heading.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #022 Halina's Trunk
Halina is an otherwise ordinary looking elephant in India that possesses otherworldly powers and is capable of performing seemingly impossible feats of mysticism and psychotherapy.  Piedad brought Omer to the elephant stable to witness Halina's power.  Halina walked over and instinctively placed the end of its trunk at Omer's ear and began muttering. Omer immediately started to smile.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #023 Keenan's Decision
Keenan, Neil and the 2 Sherpas were almost at the peak of Mt. Yetta in the Himalayan Mountains, when tragedy struck the fearless climbers.  On the 3rd day descending, Keenan was shocked at the sudden sight of Neil and Mohan dangling in the air by a rope, swinging to and fro with the wind gusts!  Keenan yelled to Neil.  Gerhan yelled to his brother.  There was no response from either dangler!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #024 Nestor's Duty
Nestor is a lion that was raised from a zoo cub to work as a K-9 animal and proved valuable on its first mission by saving Police officers.  Nestor grabbed one suspect by the back of the leather jacket and threw the person out the window into the street. The 5th criminal threw their gun to the floor and their hands in the air and luckily Nestor's training forced the lion to stop attacking when a perpetrator surrendered. The lion smacked the perp to the floor and held the thug there with one great paw.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #025 Lamar's Despair
Lamar the Yeti, at 7'5" tall and 393 pounds, sat ravenously feasting in the Kentucky woods on 14 squirrels, 6 rabbits, 3 raccoons, 7 possums, 2 whitetail deer and 130 crayfish.  Lamar sharpened the flint points of his weapons to a sharpness beyond razor sharp.  The creature found a special plant with poisonous leaves and rubbed the leaves on all the flint pieces.  Lamar planned to use the weapons against the strange ones.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #026 Olen's Lie
Olen is a black bear cub that was found by the side of the road by a 98 year old who could barely see, and thinking Olen was actually a dog, raised the bear with the other dogs of the family.  One day, Olen stopped climbing to just below where the honeycombs were located in a nice crotch of a tree and proceeded to eat the still-frozen leg of lamb!  Stanley yelled up at Olen, "Get down from there, you crazy dog!"  Olen ignored Stanley and polished off the lamb.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #027 Carson's Study
Carson's favorite book as a genius child was Mary Shelley's, "Frankenstein."  The idea that a human being could be brought to life from an assemblage of body parts so intrigued Carson, that it had to be attempted.  Carson as a scientist was famous decades before by winning the Nobel Prize, but had fallen out of favor in the industry due to recent exploits.  Carson won the Prize for work in genetics and after winning the prize, became a member of the group of scientists that cloned "Dolly" the sheep.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #028 Palmer's Kids
Palmer is a mini horse whose purpose is to calm and occupy the confused and rambunctious children of a family that just lost a family member.  The kids set up an obstacle course in the yard composed of various toys and bicycles, etc.  Palmer ran through the course with flying colors and was really fast!  When Palmer ran, the boys hit it with water balloons and when a balloon broke and splashed Palmer, the horsie cheerfully whinnied!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #029 Malcom's Grief
Malcom awoke to tremendous noise, blinding flashes of light, intense pain and the smell of burning flesh. The creation's ankles, wrists and neck hurt tremendously from the hot metal bands that encased them.  The deafening cacophony continued and Malcom couldn't see anything but glaring light.  The creation could only smell and feel flesh burning.  Dr. Frankenstein and assistant Diamond shrieked with joy at their new creature named Malcom!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #030 Quinton's Treats
The year was 1969 and it was a good year to be a bear in Yellowstone.  It was an even better year to be a raccoon named Quinton.  The bears dominated the dumps and always put on a good show for the tourists, because the bears were good at catching snacks in their mouths.  By stealing food from the bears, Quinton had grown to an enormous size for an American raccoon, weighing a hefty 96 pounds, but the bears didn't like it.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #031 Raleigh's Fever
It was a month before the Daytona 500 and it was Raleigh's job to take the owner's racecars onto the test track and drive them at full speed to tweak the engines, tires and suspensions.  Car #3 had a sloppy rear suspension, which required final dialing in.  Raleigh maxed the car out at 240 mph on the straightaway and fully expected the car to turn easily into the left-hand curve; however ...

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #032 Sixta's Chamber
Sixta was a large fruit bat, but wanted to get much larger by supplementing the fruit diet with blood.  It was unheard of for a fruit-eating bat to drink blood.  There was no way that a typical fruit bat with a sweet tooth for fruit would ever consider sucking down the warm salty blood of a living animal like the vampire bats did, but Sixta needed to do it! 

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #033 Tristan's Sand
Tristan was winning big at a blackjack table in Vegas and apparently someone thought it was too big, because the next moment, Tristan was waking up in the desert!  Tristan concluded that someone had slipped a Mickey into the can of Coke. Tristan lost clothes, money, ID, everything and must have been roughed up a little, because of all the body aches.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #034 Yute's River
Nature had placed the giant catfish Yute in the best possible location for a 1,000 pound 12-foot long catfish to grow and be happy, the Amazon River.  Alarmed, Yute turned upstream and started swimming at a rapid rate to break loose from the hook.  Brador shrieked, "I got one!"  Ardith said, "I told ya boy!  Don't lose 'em.  Loosen the bail!"  Brador listened, but Yute launched like a torpedo.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #035 Zoomo's Feet
Zoomo loved being a clown and was really good at making balloon animals, winning many awards for it in Clown College.  The clown trainees had to wear full clown makeup and costume when in public.  They were followed around by was called an "enforcer clown" who would yell at them, "Do you love it?  Do you love it?"  The only acceptable response by the trainee had to be, "Yes, I love it!"

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #036 Afton's Dam
Afton was one dam building fool, anxious to get back to the latest dam and unlike most beavers that built dams for a reason, Afton built dams for the challenge.  Work was underway on the largest beaver dam attempt of its kind. There was a buzz in the air.  For the first time, different beaver colonies had come together to work as a team toward a common goal.  The beavers were excitedly talking about how nice their new lake was going to be.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #037 Dario's Passion
Dario's mission was to help Lamont, who had been born with a body covered from head to toe with fur, because of DNA that had mutated, resulting in Lamont's lycanthropy.  After 2 months of experimenting with DNA, Dario's employee Kareem discovered the solution to Lamont's problem.  Kareem had invented a process whereby DNA from Lamont's blood would be mixed with the DNA from a wolf's blood, and then the mixture would be manipulated.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #038 Dagmar's Revenge
Dagmar was an extraordinarily intelligent rat and it was unfortunate that it had been placed in a cage in the laboratory with all the other lab rats, because Dagmar planned to exact revenge against the people who had placed him there.  The cages appeared to the average rat to be escape-proof, but Dagmar had been observing how the doctor had been opening and closing the cages.  It would be tricky, but it seemed possible to operate the latch on the cage by reaching far enough between the thin bars.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #039 Earnest's Call
Earnest is an elderly character who was working on the farm one day, when a sudden health issue occurred that made simply existing a challenge, requiring a maximum application of willpower to survive.  After 3 weeks of crawling, Earnest had reached the faucet and still had plenty of meat in the bucket!  The oldster drank from the faucet on and off for hours, ate some meat, drank more water and finally began to feel a bit better.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #040 Ellsworth's Spark
Ellsworth missed many things about the homeland of Egypt, but mainly missed the heat, which forced the camel to figure out how to start fires.  Zookeepers ran into Ellsworth's paddock to retain the camels in the sleeping structure for their protection.  Soon, alarms were sounding in the zoo and the Fire Department arrived to extinguish the flaming pile of urine-soaked straw.  The smell of the smoke pouring from the burning pile was horrendous!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #041 Felton's Mansion
Felton had been a butler for 41 years at Garth's mansion and thought everything had been seen, but Felton's aging boss Garth had finally gone too far, with that humdinger of a party gone awry.  Felton was accustomed to hearing knocking at the door in the middle of the late night, due to Garth's many unusual nocturnal requests.  When Felton opened the door, Garth was shivering, soaking wet, with wide bloodshot eyes.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #042 Garnet's Web
As Garnet's luck would have it, an Atomic Energy plant had been recently constructed upstream of the spider's web location, which resulted in Garnet's mutation into a prodigious spider.  A fox floated downstream one day and Garnet hurriedly climbed up into the corner of the web to watch.  The fox had been caught in the web!  Yes!  Garnet sneaked down to the animal, stung it and wrapped it up for dinner.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #043 Darick's Kingdom
When King Darick awoke in the King-sized bed, a pull on a cord brought in a crew of servants and Zenon the Wizard, all of whom were supposedly totally devoted to the King, supposedly.  Darick had always given Zenon a wide berth, but never knew what the wizard was thinking.  Zenon never smiled, laughed, spoke loudly or cried.  Zenon stood in the corner observing the morning ritual from a dark corner and was muttering something in a new raspy low whisper.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #044 Hassan's Dirt
Most people think sinkholes are caused by old water mains breaking.  Not always.  Sometimes, the sinkholes are caused by a monstrous tunneling mole named Hassan.  Hassan had traveled the entire U.S., tunneling for millions of miles, causing incalculable damage in the process and was just living life.  The mole always stayed one step ahead of the authorities and didn't feel like a criminal, being labeled one by the humans above.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #045 Jarrett's Risk
Jarrett would bet on anything.  Sometimes, a lot of money was won and other times, it resulted in living on the street with the other loser gamblers.  Jarrett started a betting strategy and borrowed $20,000 from a loan shark on the city limits.  Then, $40,000 had to be paid back to the shark within the month, or else. The money began piling up immediately.  Jarrett reached $100,000 during the 1st week and placed increasingly higher and higher bets with the winnings, until ...

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #046 Kazuko's Banana
Kazuko was still a growing shark when the accident happened, at only 8 feet long, not a fully grown Great White.  While swimming in the cloudy shallows, feeding on tiny colorful fish, a motor boat passed over.  Elbert bandaged Kazuko's damaged tail and caught some fresh fish from the lagoon for the shark to eat.  Elbert had helped numerous sharks to recover from their propeller injuries and that's when Elbert got the idea to use Kazuko as a banana boat!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #047 Lionel's Illusions
Lionel had 2 sources of income.  One source was from the funeral parlor.  The other source was from occasional evening and weekend gigs as an illusionist.  Like most illusionists, Lionel hated the term magician.  The bodies were always supposed to come from the funeral parlors.  Lionel's assistant brought up the fact that they were running out of corpses.  They wouldn't be able to maintain the pace of performing without having a lot more dead bodies to use in the act.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #048 Osvaldo's Oink
Designer dog breeds were becoming all the rage.  Osvaldo came into the world as a first in breeding.  People had waited a long time to get their hands on the first successful cross between a Chihuahua dog and a pig, named by the breeder, a chia-pig.  Osvaldo decided to wait for things to settle down before he absconded with any more of Paris' shiny objects.  Two days later, when Paris was asleep, Osvaldo performed the same act and flushed a necklace down the toilet.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #049 Porfirio's Gaze
When Porfirio was on stage, the powers of hypnotism went beyond the ability to simply convince impressionable people to do funny things.  When Porfirio was young in the school cafeteria, the bully Zack sprinkled itching powder down the back of Porfirio's shirt and Zack often spat in Porfirio's food, making it difficult for Porfirio to finish eating it.  It was time for Porfirio to get even.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #050 Quincy's Eggs
Quincy the male ostrich mated with the 900 hen ostriches of Winford's ranch.  For some unknown reason, when Quincy began mating with Winford's ostriches for egg production, the size of their eggs doubled.  Rival egg company Nutrico hatched a plan to steal Quincy from Winford and hold the ostrich for the ransom of Winford leaving the industry.  Quincy had been sharpening his front toenails since he was a baby and a single kick from one of those powerful legs can split a man down the middle.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #051 Ulrich's Patients
Some days were particularly brutal, involving many strange revelations being spoken.  It was a good thing for some of Ulrich's psychiatric patients that there was a confidentiality agreement in place.  Many of the people were on the verge of criminal activity, at least as far as the patients were saying.  Ulrich remembered to remain calm with one particular person, walked over to them standing at the window and whispered to please sit down.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #052 Xavier's Might
Xavier is the biggest, baddest bull in the history of bull riding.  In 23 years of carrying riders, no rider had managed to get a full ride.  Out of 13,400 rides, thousands of injuries had been inflicted, many of them fatal.  As the bull grew older, it decided to start getting really mean to make up for its diminishing abilities.  Xavier would begin by mauling the best rider in the industry and then gradually work down the list.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #053 Yuriko's Lips
Yuriko came onto the scene with the best ventriloquist act to be seen and heard by anyone since the beginning of such acts.  As Yuriko sat in the hotel room, Yuriko said to the ventriloquist dummy Yanno, "We did it Yanno!  We made it on the road!  We're stars already!"  Yanno said, "I told you we could do it.  You just had to trust me!"  As Yuriko and the dummy Yanno sat in the hotel room watching TV, they started arguing over what to watch.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #054 Zachariah's Balls
From the first moment that Zachariah laid eyes on a golf ball as a gopher pup, it became an obsession.  It was Zachariah's mission in life to find, collect and preserve all the golf balls available on the golf course.  Golfers had begun registering complaints that their golf balls were disappearing from the roughs, fairways and even some of the greens at an alarming rate.  What was the golf course going to do about it?

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #055 Caleb's Capers
Caleb was excited about the new mission, the dossier of which was received from boss Z.  Caleb looked it over while Z finished a phone call.  For each target, the Saturn members would need to devise a specific plan for obtaining the DNA sample from the person or persons to whom the biometric lock was dedicated.  Once the sample was obtained, the safe, vault or other stronghold could then be opened and emptied of its valuables.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #056 Edgardo's Escape
Edgardo the lizard climbed onto the riding lawn mower parked in the garage and turned the key; the mower roared to life and when a certain lever was moved, the mower lurched backwards toward the garage door.  Edgardo had only been a member of the family for a week when the chameleon awoke in a cigar box buried in the ground.  One of the children thought the lizard was dead one morning and hastily buried it.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #057 Ferdinand's Mud
Ferdinand clumsily and hastily marched along through the jungle, barely looking at the map, due to the combination of jubilance and concentration on the accident story.  Ferdinand's lack of focus found the oaf suddenly sinking into quicksand and becoming trapped.  The sun went down and strange shadows began crawling from all directions toward the quietly screaming Ferdinand.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #058 Garfield's Races
At the zoo, Garfield ate Purina Cheetah Chow and never ate a piece of meat. When Mick brought Garfield home, Garfield became so into eating the wild animals in Mick's yard that the cheetah began eating everything that moved, including snakes, turtles, frogs, toads, birds, insects and worms.  The wild game ingested by Garfield increased the cheetah's running speed dramatically.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #059 Harlan's Barrel
Even as a young child, daredevils had captured Harlan's interest.  For over 100 years, the public had always found favor with the daredevils who went over Niagara Falls in a barrel.  Harlan would become one of those daredevils!  Harlan waited as long as possible until the Police showed up, and then Harlan's grandmother pushed the barrel into the river. The people on the shores cheered.  Harlan did it!  Harlan had become a daredevil just like the others and would become famous!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #060 Irwink's Yard
Landon's 320-pound alligator snapping turtle named Irwink was in charge of security at Landon's junkyard.  The junkyard signs said, "No Trespassing under Penalty of Bad Turtle!"  Irwink was meaner than any dog and the turtle's long legs provided greater speed than any dog.  Throw in a bulletproof shell and you have a perfect security guard!  Landon's office had a back door that was opened for Irwink to come into the office to eat its daily 50-pound bag of Purina Turtle Chow.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #061 Javier's Mail
"Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen.  Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily.  Orphans preferred."  Reading the poster intrigued Javier that being a Pony Express rider was worth $100 per month.  Once, Javier was riding during a vicious summer thunderstorm and had been lifted up off the ground with the horse.  Javier was spun around a few times and placed back down unharmed, facing the opposite direction on the trail.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #062 Kelvin's Lick
Hal was really excited to pick up the wolf named Kelvin from the naturalists at Yellowstone.  Ever since the wolves had been reintroduced to the United States, the animals had been flourishing.  Their numbers had increased too successfully in some parts of the Park, requiring some of the wolves to be adopted out.  Unfortunately, Kelvin encountered some trouble with Hal.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #063 Leonid's Air
As a seemingly calm Captain Leonid thought back to those early days, it was hoped that the still-floating plane would be found in time.  Leonid, the co-pilot and the navigator sat in the cockpit breathing through oxygen masks.  The panicking passengers in the cabin were doing the same, as the plane suddenly began sinking into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #064 Napoleon's Scream
Every time Napoleon the goat heard the sound of the elevator bell ringing, the goat instinctively bleated to defend its territory.  When Napoleon was young, the bleat sounded cute; at Napoleon's current larger size, it sounded like a woman screaming.  As Oscar escorted a friend into an apartment down the hall, Napoleon screamed upon hearing the sound of the elevator bell.  Nettie heard the scream and thought someone was being killed.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #065 Odell's Coffin
Odell, nicknamed Scarface, as commander of the M-4 Sherman tank, tank driver, nicknamed Baby Face, co-driver, nicknamed Mad Dog, gunner, nicknamed Machine Gun and the loader, nicknamed Pretty Boy were involved in combat in the 1942 desert of Morocco, when enemy artillery imposed its will on them.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #066 Preston's Presents
In 5 seconds, Preston the ferret returned with a Christmas gift.  He handed it up to Rocko, who put it in the garbage bag.  Preston continued retrieving gifts until the bag was 1/4 full.  They hit 3 more houses until they filled the bag.  They went back to the car, emptied the bag into the back seat and covered the stolen gifts with a blanket.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #067 Querko's City
Querko had fought the politicians and naysayers for long enough; the city under the sea was in motion.  Querko had put aside several billion dollars toward creating the commune in the ocean.  After consulting with the leading ocean and weather experts, Querko located a place in the Pacific Ocean where the minimum amount of turbulence existed.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #068 Stanford's Lake
Stanford the dinosaur was beginning to get sick and tired of hiding in Loch Ness.  It had been a long time since the famous picture had been taken of Stanford in 1933 and some changes needed to be made around there.  First of all, Stanford was planning to start emerging in the daytime to eat whatever looked tasty, including alligators and people, especially people.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #069 Tanner's West
Tanner, Tex, Kit and Doc were out moving the cattle and horses to different pastures when the winds started blowing like nobody's business.  Esmeralda was napping in Tanner's room after eating Cooky's huge lunch.  Cooky was down in the root cellar gathering some canned goods for supper.  A menacing twister had formed from the swirling winds, thundered down through the pass and headed directly toward Tanner's ranch house!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #070 Uncle's Voice
As the customers of the beauty salon walked by Uncle the parrot on the way to the ladies room, the bird asked, "Gonna poop, gonna poop?"  When the customers exited the ladies room, Uncle asked, "Didya poop, didya poop?"  The Judge had been convinced of the bird's viability as a witness. The case detective took Uncle back to Ashanti and informed her what the Judge said.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #071 Wilburn's Bond
Technically, Wilburn was a Fugitive Recovery Agent (FRA) or Bail Enforcement Agent (BEA), the fancy names for bounty hunter.  Wilburn's bounty hunting crew consisted of Ringer, who made the phone calls, Webber, who searched the internet and Trucker, who kept everybody fed and maintained/stocked the chase RV.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #072 Wyatt's Nuts
After searching the surrounding area, Wyatt the squirrel found 37 other gray squirrels, 17 red squirrels and 99 chipmunks and they held a meeting to decide where to store their vast nut collection.  A gray squirrel friend of Wyatt's suggested using the attic of the decrepit old guy's house located next to the woods.  The millions and millions of nuts would finally have a nice dry home.  It would be epic!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #073 Vance's Zoo
Vance's zoo was in trouble, because every animal in the place had one psychological issue or another.  Vance feared that it might be Albert Einstein's prediction coming true that eventually all animals in captivity would rebel against their captors.  It was a sad thing to think about, but the concept seemed to be in progress at the zoo.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #074 Verdell's Vision
Most of Verdell's life had been consumed by discovering a way to restore the vision of someone who had lost all or most of it, due to illness, injury or just plain bad luck.  Verdell's grandfather had gone blind at the age of 59 from the aggravated effects of Type I diabetes.  It was because of Verdell's grandfather that Verdell became determined to find the miracle cure.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #075 Xenon's Piano
Xenon was the 3rd greatest pianist on earth and was hoping to be number 2 someday, until the freak accident of the hand loss.  The surgeon and anesthesiologist sedated Xenon in the operating room and the procedure was begun.  After 3 hours of precision work, the hand had been re-attached and appeared to have the correct blood flow.  All the fingers were properly fleshy and toned.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #076 Zukiko's Master
Zukiko the seeing eye dog was beginning to catch onto its master JJ's lie.  The same way that dogs were capable of sensing people's ailments was the same way that Zukiko sensed that JJ was lying about being blind.  Zukiko thought it wasn't right that JJ pretended to have an affliction just to garner sympathy from people and the dog schemed to expose JJ as a phony.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #077 Spear's Tribe
In the Clear Creek Tribe, with the exception of Chief Clear Creek, the members of the tribe had names that were more or less in line with their tasks in the tribe.  For example, Spear was a male hunter of the tribe who was 20 years of age or older and therefore was named as the hunters were named.  His formal name was "Hunts with Spear."  Anyone who was older addressed him by his informal name of Spear.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #078 Ute's Guy
Guy at 104 was happy living at home with the orangutan family.  Orangutans Ute and Agatha took the best care of Guy that orangutans could, including numerous diaper changes and more bathing than usual, but they didn't mind.  Guy had become like a father to Ute and Agatha and a grandfather to Ute's and Agatha's orangutan children Britney and Chelsea.  Britney and Chelsea began giving Guy his massages and baths and Guy really loved the creatures.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #079 Walker's Lobster
Walker and Texas felt as if they were saving all their money for nothing if they couldn't convince Ranger to change his mind.  They had to do something about it.  Walker knew someone named Zito who claimed that it could be arranged for an accident to happen to Ranger while Ranger was checking the lobster cages.  The location where Ranger had the traps in the water was extremely rocky, and treacherous, a perfect accident locale.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #080 Yael's Flame
Yael liked everything about fire.  Was it the miniscule heat from a birthday candle or the seemingly infinite heat from a forest fire?  Was it the ability of fire to render anything on earth into ashes?  Was it the sound of fire as it roared like a lion when a building was engulfed?  Was it fire's ability to destroy at will?  By the time that 2 years had passed, Yael had become associated with many mysterious fires.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #081 Christopher's Gifts
Christopher actually went by many names, being known as Kris Kringle, Chris Kringle, St. Nicholas, Santa Claus and other variations, but preferred to be called Chris by friends and Mr. Chris by the worker elves.  Chris was busy every day of the year, but particularly busy on Christmas Eve.  Initially, Chris did all the gift manufacturing, but soon found it too tedious and began hiring the elves.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #082 Darnell's Healing
At 52 years old, Darnell had done everything as a general practitioner and surgeon in America and felt that it was time to help the peoples of equatorial Africa.  Through the Red Cross, they found a village called Arunda Bowandi, which translated from the local African dialect to English as "Place of Plenty."  The locals were hired to do the work and the first order of business was to reduce the malaria and yellow fever.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #083 Edison's Abode
Some people would call Edison eccentric; others chose the word interesting.  That was an understatement.  At 61 years old, Edison had made millions and owned every toy available.  Edison's wife had left behind a nice old mansion when passing 10 years before.  Through special channels, people could discover that Edison was offering the sum of $2 million to any person who could survive at the mansion for one week.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #084 Parker's Store
Parker was obsessed with the creation of a pet store where the pets only ate live food.  Parker hated the way the pet food industry had gone lately with the unscrupulous manufacturers putting so much garbage into the pet food and getting away with it.  As always, the big manufacturers paid the politicians large campaign contributions, which were blatantly legal bribery.  Parker's Store conveniently stocked the live foods that the pets ate.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #085 Vern's Show
Vern had been in the entertainment industry for decades and claimed to know everything about all the forms.  At the age of 83, Vern had sat through hundreds of thousands of auditions and had easily seen it all.  Vern collected 11 investors into a conglomerate and wanted acts for his new Branson, Missouri show called, "Talent Night."  Vern enlisted the help of 4 of the 11 investors, who were also experts in the entertainment industry, to evaluate the new talent.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #086 Gene's Objects
Gene had always speculated if there actually were such things as objects that flew through the sky that were unidentifiable.  Many people claimed to have seen them through the decades.  Gene took the investigation on the road to interview people all over the great United States.  After interviewing 25 people in 25 states, Gene concluded that the people wholly believed in what they had seen and experienced.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #087 Hansel's Gel
Hansel and the team produced the first 1,000 gel-filled devices and they were shipped to Vietnam.  Within the week, the devices were being used with surprising results.  Initially, when the medics injected the gel into the brain-injured soldiers, they didn't expect much.  However, the results were spectacular.  Nearly 80% of the brain-injured soldiers survived and made it to the hospitals for further treatment.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #088 Jasper's Clues

Jasper began an autopsy of a 48-year old to determine the actual cause of the person's passing, supposedly of natural causes.  Normally when someone passes away from natural causes, they are of an advanced age, typically over 75 years.  When a 48-year old passes away, natural causes might have to be ruled out.  Something had happened to the 48-year old that probably wasn't natural and Jasper would get to the bottom of it.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #089 Kendrick's Fables
Kendrick is a wise old person who reads all the time, has written many books and has even won a Pulitzer Prize or 2 along the way.  Kendrick was curious about everything and could discuss in depth any topic with anyone.  Kendrick's favorite hobby was gathering old buddies together and having each person take a turn reading their weekly story to the group.  One of the most popular yarns is described here.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #090 Alberto's Resort
Alberto expanded the original hotel into a resort/retirement community.  The resort had a hospital where the residents could receive the most complex surgeries and a pharmacy where they could purchase the most expensive prescription drugs at far lower prices than in the United States.  Harold, Idalia, Jack, Kacey and Lana couldn't wait to get to Alberto's resort, which Alberto called, "The Sunflower Resort."

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #091 Vaughn's Camper
Vaughn and Vicky were excited about the purchase of their used RV that was a real beauty at 42 feet long and was fully equipped with everything necessary to live away from home for weeks at a time.  They actually got a tremendous deal on the RV, because it had been bought new by someone and had been sold back to the RV dealer.  During the 2nd day of driving, the engine began behaving erratically.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #092 Mann's Rodents
Mann's idea of employing the physical exertion produced by a human or an animal on a wheel or treadmill to generate some form of power on the other end had been around for centuries. The element that made Mann's idea unique was the special energy cell. Mann had devised a device that was similar to a capacitor and it was so efficient, that it could generate 100 watts for each hour that a gerbil runs on the wheel in its cage.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #093 Wade's Solution
British scientist Wade had been quietly conjuring a special stroke therapy formula.  Wade worked in the lab for 44 years on the project, until at the age of 71, Wade was finally ready to go public.  Wade's solution took a long time to make workable due to the complexity of the process.  The stroke victim had to ingest special exotic fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and spices specifically curated at the peak of freshness.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #094 Ike's Cases

Ike entered the dusty office, had a seat behind the paper-strewn desk and leaned back in the wobbly chair to rest scuffed shoes on the oak.  Ike's bubbly secretary Harmony came in with Ike's favorite mug of black, sugarless Colombian coffee and the morning paper.  Ike was intently thinking about something and didn't hear Harmony say good morning.  Harmony kept shouting it until Ike finally asked what was all the noise about.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #095 Zip's Island
Zip was awakened by the excruciating pain of something pinching the web of skin between the big toe and the 2nd toe on the right foot.  Ouch!  Zip shook the foot to no avail.  Zip was face down on sand on a beach and water was lapping at the toes while lying there.  Ouch!  A crab had a firm grip on the foot and wouldn't let go.  Zip stood up, walked with the crab in tow toward the trees at the edge of the beach and found a stick.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #096 Gilberto's Hole
Gilberto had researched and researched until blue in the face from reading and rented various pieces of heavy equipment and excavated the underground lair.  The walls were built of reinforced concrete and topped off with a 3-foot thick reinforced concrete slab.  The underground house would be 100% resistant to communist attack.  Gilberto's real trick was the design of the complex system of high-tech facilities.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #097 Tatum's Mate
Chimpanzee Charlie was getting sick and tired of Tatum swinging around the jungle claiming to be as great as father Tarzan.  When Tarzan and Jane mated and little Tatum was born, Tatum vowed to replace Tarzan as the king of the jungle.  When Tarzan passed away after eating some excessively rotted hippo jerky, Tatum leaped to the throne.  However, Charlie had always been the real hero of Tatum's escapades.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #098 Owen's Chris
Owen had been trying for years and finally succeeded where no one had before by creating a thinking computer.  Owen named the computer Chris after the acronym C.H.R.I.S., which stood for Computerized Humanoid Reliable Intelligent System.  Chris was fully capable of intelligent conversation and could play any board game or other game with a human and probably always win.  Chris especially liked playing chess.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #099 Sebastian's Ice
Cryonics is the preservation in liquid nitrogen at -196°C of people who cannot be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that resuscitation to full health may be possible in the future.  Cryobiologists perform the research related to cryonics.  A cryonicist is a person who believes in cryonics and is planning to undergo the process when they pass away.  Cryopreservation is the process of employing cryonics to preserve a cryonicist.  Sebastian loves Cryonics and is the most outspoken Cryobiologist.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #100 Yelloh's Cure
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive movement disorder, meaning that symptoms continue and worsen over time. Nearly one million people in the U.S. are living with Parkinson's Disease. The cause is unknown and there are treatment options such as medication and surgery to manage its symptoms. The great genius Yelloh cured Parkinson's Disease by removing the substantia nigra from brains of people with PD.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #101 Rex's Ocean 2
It was too late. Unfortunately, Rex had attracted the unwanted attention of a flock of frigate birds that had been flying across the Atlantic Ocean from Miami, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas.  Rex is a partier who fell off a yacht in the Bermuda Triangle and ends up swimming, floating, treading water and basically turning into a wretch from the effects of the sharks, birds, stress, salt water and sunshine.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #102 Federico's Cords
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by a buildup of what is known as beta-amyloid plaques.  The toxic function of this peptide in the brain is reported in many studies.  Generally, beta-amyloid plaque accumulation in the brain causes localized inflammation.  Because human umbilical cord fluid stem cells have been shown to promote an anti-inflammation benefit, Federico cured Alzheimer’s Disease with fresh cord fluid infusions.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #103 Abraham's Teeth
Abraham, dental assistant Oralee, oral hygienist Flossy and receptionist S'miley set up the dental office in the village 14 years ago and were fully booked each day.  Abe maintained a tight ship with the appointments and if someone called to cancel, S'miley called the other clients to fill the cancellations.  At 3:00 pm, a cleaning/annual x-rays/exam by Flossy was done on Kaitlyn.  Also at 3:00 pm, old Mac showed up for dentures fitting with Abe and Oralee.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #104 Cedrick's Clients
Cedrick started working in Vegas years ago as a blackjack dealer and had loyally worked at the same hotel for the entire entertainment career.  Cedrick worked as a dealer, then as a craps table person and the hotel approached Cedrick after 6 years of faithful service, to become one of the hotel's general concierges.  In short order, Cedrick became the most well known concierge in Vegas, capable of procuring anything for anyone, for a price.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #105 Taciano's Raft
Taciano knew they were headed for trouble from the moment they departed from the country of Cuba.  Taciano with family of 6, and friend Paco also with family of 6 had launched from northern Cuba in a ramshackle 13-foot boat that was maybe suited for a maximum of 10 people.  They were on their way to Florida, come what may.  The 14 people were prepared to endure whatever hardships they might encounter in order to begin their new and hopefully better lives.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #106 Landon's Whisper
Everybody said Landon was crazy for doing the job, but Landon didn't think it was that big of a deal.  Landon began working with animals first at an animal shelter and then at a vet, after graduating early from high school at the age of 17.  Landon discovered a spiritual bond with animals that few people possessed.  Landon's animal whispering abilities were labeled as absolutely phenomenal, otherworldly and even spooky.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #107 Nathaniel's Tables
Nathaniel was an actor or at least wanted to be an actor and was taking acting lessons at one of the many acting schools in NYC.  After lessons during the day, Nathaniel worked as a server at whichever restaurant was tolerable.  NYC was overloaded, overflowing and fully saturated with wannabe actors and actresses who didn't want to work at real jobs.  The earth was crawling with people who thought they were the next DeNiro, Kidman, Hoffman, Streep or Eastwood.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #108 Nixon's Box
Not all boxes were created equal.  Just ask any homeless person who lived on the streets.  Nixon had learned years ago that the choicest cardboard boxes were the ones that previously contained refrigerators.  Nixon had to duel with a snarly old person to take ownership of the latest box and would fight until the last breath in order to keep it.  The boxes provided limited shelter from the weather and suitable privacy from the other homeless in that community next to the river.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #109 Orlando's Game

It was elementary for Orlando to play the game; people were too trusting and believing in the good of other people.  Orlando realized early in life how easily people could be taken advantage of after being disarmed by charm.  After Orlando graduated from high school, Orlando's father taught everything about conning people.  Orlando's father had known all too well how Orlando would be set for life, once Orlando had begun playing the game.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #110 Rafi's Cave 2
Rafi is an 8 year old child living on a volcanic island who becomes trapped in a cave when a volcano unexpectedly erupts and covers the child's home and village with lava.  On the 77th day, Rafi awakened to tears again, waking up every day crying.  Rafi was sad and disillusioned and was beginning to give up hope.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #111 Pat's Gang
Pat and the 5 other members of the chain gang were actually some of the luckier members of the prison.  Knuckles, Slackjaw, Fisheyes, Bigtoes and Fingers had been on the waitlist for quite a while to work on a chain gang.  The medium security prison only had 9 chain gangs comprised of 54 lucky inmates.  The gangs were utilized in the Texas prison to clear the weeds from the dirt shoulders of the secondary highways.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #112 Quinn's Machine
Throughout history, the concept of time travel had been on the minds of scientists, theorists and dreamers alike.  Quinn was the ideal type of person to build a time machine, if anyone could, because Quinn was a scientist, theorist and dreamer all rolled up in one. Quinn's mastery of theoretical physics was near the top of the list of the world's greatest thinkers.  Quinn had the capability of creating the machines that could transform idle theories into reality.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #113 Captain's Booty
Captain wasn't the typical pirate of the 1600's who ran around stealing gold from the Spanish ships to use for pleasure. Captain had recruited a group of men to work on the ship for the sole purpose of taking the money from the Spanish to give it back to the poor. Captain and compadres had all grown up in poverty under the fierce rule of the Spanish.  The parents of Captain and crew had all been worked into their graves by the Spanish Royalty.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #114 Ralphie's Life
Ralphie awoke at 6:00 am to the annoying sound of the alarm clock.  Nanny Omarossa knocked on the bedroom door 10 minutes later to see if Ralphie was awake.  Ralphie announced awareness through the door to Omarossa and headed to the bathroom.  Ralphie hated to have to wake up so early each day, but the latest movie role required 10-hour filming days and a lot had to be done before even going to the movie set.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #115 Steve's Secret
The mysterious woman whom Steve McQueen had bitten, possibly in 1977 possessed some kind of immunity system disease. Whoever the woman was, it was the right thing for Steve to do at the time. Steve was so addicted to the superhuman feeling of being a vampire, that nothing else mattered. Regrettably, even a bloodsucker like Steve had a weakness and it wasn't a crucifix, sunshine, garlic, a stake through the heart or any other such superstitious nonsense.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #116 Randolph's Haul
Randolph didn't care what was being hauled while driving the 18-wheeler; anything would do to pay the bills. Randolph had been driving for a long time, had traveled millions of miles and was considered as good as gold to the trucking companies. Randolph actually only had one minor accident, which occurred while swatting a bee that had stung the left eyebrow while driving the rig.  Horrified Randolph watched 187 screeching immigrants leap from the smoking truck.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #117 Jeremiah's Oil
Jeremiah patented in excruciating detail every new device and process related to oil well fire extinguishing.  Jeremiah had created an industry and became world famous for the ability to quickly extinguish the oil well fires with minimal destruction to the all-important wellhead.  Jeremiah's science involved a combination of unequaled fearlessness and the expertly timed usage of devices that resulted in a monopoly of the industry.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #118 Buster's Ticker
A stockbroker like Buster is an individual who charges a fee or commission for executing buy and sell orders that are submitted by an investor. Brokers are registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Brokers combine flexibility, judgement, automation and anonymity with state-of-the-art technology and order management tools. Buster suddenly became interested in gambling on the side, which led to trouble.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #119 Gyro's Warriors
At the relatively young age of 25, Gyro began working in the equatorial African village of Jeb Jeb where the BukToot tribe lived. The people had unusually large upper middle front teeth, which was a trait passed on through many generations of the tribe. The BukToots were a gentle people and were unfortunately attacked occasionally by the local more aggressive tribes. Gyro began working with 2 other doctors and 6 nurses in the raw heat and humidity that took great tolls on everyone.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #120 Herc's Herd
The other hippos in Herc's herd unanimously called the hippo Herc because of its amazing unnatural strength.  Herc was the only hippo in the herd that was capable of climbing trees. It wasn't climbing in the typical sense in the way that monkeys and cats climb trees.  Herc could only climb a tree when its trunk was at a certain angle or flatter.  Usually the trees that Herc climbed were trees that elephants had pushed over to get at the dates growing at the tops of the trees.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #121 Teddy's Run 2
Teddy is a runner who hopes to win a 1962 Cadillac by running across the United States.  As could be imagined, Teddy "runs" into many challenges along the way, including filth, thirst, hunger, loneliness, injuries, scoffing, bullying and near-death experiences.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #122 Indio's Bout
Indio ran far ahead of the thug to gain enough distance to be able to reach down to the ground for a handful of dirt. Indio slowed down just enough to lean over, grab dirt, spin around quickly and toss it in the general direction of the assailant's face. The thug was agile, but not enough to avoid some of the dirt landing in the eyes. The thug yelled some expletives and tried to wipe the dirt from the eyes while expecting Indio's retaliatory attack.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #123 Robert's Hoodlums
From birth, Robert of Southford had always lived in poverty and Robert's parents worked as hard as they could, barely scraped by and provided just barely enough sustenance for Robert and 17 brothers and sisters. Most of the income that Robert's parents made from working was paid to the greedy Deputy-of-Noddingoff and flunky Sir-Georgie of Dewsbury to hand over to the King of Ganzvoort. Robert formed a group to take money from the King and give it to the poor.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #124 Yanko's Hands
Yanko's hands had picked millions of tons of fruit over 83 years as a produce picker.  Yanko had been smuggled out of Mexico by godfather Xico, who had been taking care of godchild Yanko after Yanko's parents passed away in an accident. Yanko had known no other life than being a migrant farm worker. When Yanko and Veracruz were both 90, they had been singing, whistling and discussing matters in Washington while picking apples.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #125 Dalton's Dilemma
Damn!  Dalton had trouble sleeping again. It wasn't an isolated incident, however.  Dalton had trouble sleeping for what seemed like an entire lifetime.  There was little that could be done.  Was it an active imagination or too much food too late at night?  Was it drinking liquids after 8:00 pm or that nap that at 6:00 after that big dinner?  What caused the sleep problem this time? Dalton could get to sleep fine, but would wake up at 1:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #126 Stinky's Schemes
Stinky had always been a schemer.  In kindergarten class, Stinky devised a scheme to sell part of lunch to other kids.  Stinky convinced friend Sammo to buy sneakers in kindergarten class.  When Stinky came home from school that day in stocking feet, Stinky's mother demanded to get the sneakers back.  Fortunately, Sammo only lived next door, so it only took a few minutes for the transaction.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #127 Mongo's Crew
While attempting to dance to the music created by Mongo and Belvedere, Hargreaves had an insight. The week before, Hargreaves had found a pair of dried out melons that had the seeds rattling around inside. When shaken, the seeds in the melons made an interesting sound. Mongo whispered something to Hargreaves and Marmaduke. As the musicians continued playing to distract the lion, Mongo readied the men to move in for the attack.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #128 Fred's Chums
Fred shuddered and thought that by the time the elevator stopped at the 79th floor, it was probably going to smell like the fat man's Ben-Gay and Fred would be forced to listen to co-workers stupidly commenting about being sore for whatever reason and needing the ointment, etc. Huh? What was that grinding sound? The elevator jolted to a stop! The lights went out! Fred smelled something electrical and then smelled smoke!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #129 Emerson's Badges
Emerson needed 21 merit badges to become an Eagle Scout, which included the 13 mandatory from the list: Camping, Cooking, Swimming/Hiking/Cycling, Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in the World, Communication, Lifesaving/Emergency Preparedness, Environmental Science/Sustainability, Family Life, First Aid, Personal Fitness and Personal Management.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #130 Ingeborg's Grotto
Ingeborg began to grow weak from hunger and wished there was something in the backpack besides batteries. Ingeborg reasoned that something to eat would have been barfed out anyway because of the foul water. Years of cave exploring had toughened Ingeborg's body, but some kind of sustenance was necessary to keep moving efficiently. After 20 minutes, Ingeborg felt sick, vomited and began to get blurry vision.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #131 Larry's Lunch
Larry couldn't wait to wake up in the morning, because it meant that it was time to eat again.  Larry loved the process of eating, but the food that was eaten was only part of the experience.  From an early age, Larry had been allowed to sit unsupervised in front of the refrigerator, build the Dagwood sandwiches and eat them at will.  Larry remembered sitting on the little stool in front of the opened door; those were the days. Larry's favorite time of day was lunch time.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #132 Felix's Aloofness
Felix didn't feel more or less aloof and distant than any other cat, but was a typical cat that cared more about its next meal than anything else. It was instinct and unable to be helped. It wasn't in Felix's power to overwhelm nature; no one could - human or animal. Instinct was instinct. Felix then realized that it actually was more aloof than other cats, because Felix genuinely cared more for food than the person who gave it the food.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #133 Mikhail's Tempest
Mikhail inserted the cattle prod into the pile of fat slob and Great Dane, hoping to make contact with the dog, but only managed to shock the fat slob's bare skin. The fat slob squealed from the pain and roared at Mikhail to shock the dog. Mikhail was trying, but it was difficult from all the movement. As the fat slob and dog rolled across the lawn, they knocked Mikhail to the ground. Someone from across the street yanked the cattle prod from Mikhail's geriatric grip.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #134 Paul's Sheep
Pasquale had never heard such guttural sounds emanating from a pig before. Paul the pig sounded like a pack of wolves chomping on an elk. Pasquale became somewhat concerned when Paul finished eating the 300 pounds of meat in only 45 minutes and wanted to eat more. Pasquale told Paul that they would have to wait until tomorrow for more meat, because the butcher was already closed. How were they supposed to keep feeding the 600-pound Paul such huge amounts of beef each day?

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #135 Barry's Bicycle
Barry searched and searched at the junkyard for hours until finally finding the new mode of transportation and what would eventually become the dream bicycle.  It was only a rusty bike frame with pitted handlebars, shabby seat and empty rims, but it possessed the rudiments of what was needed.  Barry started with that precious bike frame and planned to add each piece in succession, until the magnificent creation was complete.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #136 Harry's Heroes
Harry had been a therapy horse for people with stress-related issues for many years and had seen it all. Harry had helped countless people cope with their issues and most had gone on to lead happy and productive lives. However, Harry was tired of having to be so serious all the time. The horse had been a fun-loving and boisterous animal from an early age, but had become pigeonholed as a therapy horse, because of the owner.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #137 Klete's Brother
Klete (rhymes with street) and twin brother Kleet (rhymes with straight) were survivors.  They had been on their own since the age of 13, when the tornado took their parents and the house in which they were born.  Klete and Kleet had been shoved into the storm cellar by their father just before the twister hit. Their mother and father were still in the house gathering food and water to take to the cellar when the house became airborne and was never seen again.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #138 Elmo's Eats
Elmo the eagle was cruising at about 1,100 feet altitude and was the king of the bird world. The eagle was the national symbol after all. Elmo loved soaring and floating on the currents more than anything, even more than eating. Elmo was only occasionally hungry and didn't really need to eat every day, but when the eagle did eat, it gorged. Elmo dove down to the big bear in the water, where the bear was more vulnerable to attack from above.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #139 Jehovazath's Seeds
When Jehovazath had worked to exhaustion and had fallen into the very dirt in the field of birth, Jehovazath's mother had reached out from the heavens.  Jehovazath's mother had been blessed with the talent of artistry, but had never revealed it to anyone.  Jehovazath's mother had passed on the talents to Jehovazath.  When Jehovazath awoke to the epiphany, all thoughts were related to donning mother's old sleep shirt.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #140 Kadge's Register
Kadge watched in horror from the hiding place as the fat oaf applied the ointment from the many tubes purchased from Kadge's store, to the bare back of the oaf's mother.  The mother was on all fours on the floor, walking around and bucking like a bronco.  The lardish oaf then climbed onto the back of the mother who was in a bucking-backward position.  The oaf's mother galloped to the window and spied Kadge, who had just emerged from the hiding place.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #141 Zero's Colleagues
Zero couldn't stand it.  That Yang was clipping fingernails again.  How could someone be so inconsiderate?  Clip, clip, clip, clip, Argh!  What was wrong with some people?  Zero wouldn't even consider clipping fingernails at work, or anywhere else in public, for that matter.  That oaf Yang clipped fingernails once or twice a week.  It was making Zero insane.  Maybe Zero was the only one in the office bothered by Yang's fingernail clipping?

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #142 Randy's Rangers
Randy had become sick and tired of all the petty crimes taking place in the neighborhood and wanted to do something about it.  The Police Force was too limited in personnel to have enough of an effect on the crimes.  All the little old ladies whom Randy knew from the paper route were too afraid to go to the Piggly Wiggly to do their weekly shopping.  Randy knew a select group of misfits who were all similar to Randy and they wanted to be part of a great cause.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #143 Alan's Revelations
The secret was beginning to eat away at Alan's insides like a hyena eating a dead rotten vulture. Alan could feel health deteriorating,  was on little sleep and was stumbling around in a daze. Alan still had duties to perform however, rain or shine. "Bless me blah blah blah; my last confession blah blah blah." An unknown thug had entered Alan's chamber. The oaf smelled of old sweat, cheap cologne, dirty leather and greasy hair.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #144 Orville's Folly
Orville couldn't understand why the seed order had been taking so long to come in. Mr. Ducker at the store assured Orville that the order would be in within 10 days and it had been 2 weeks already. The plowed field was ready to be planted and was drying out and becoming hard packed again. Orville had endless problems on the farm, one of which was the cantankerous tractor that seemed to have a mind of its own. Sometimes it started easily and sometimes it didn't.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #145 Washyngtone's Ouija
Washyngtone's fingertips were getting hotter.  The contact with the planchette was beginning to become unbearable, but Washyngtone liked it.  The person on the other side of the planchette appeared to be experiencing similar distress.  The person was desperate to communicate with a lost love and seemed to be willing to tolerate anything.  Washyngtone had been born with a one-in-a-billion ability to make contact with the spirits via the Ouija.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #146 Sigfreed's Royy
After 5 months, Royy had somehow defeated Sigfreed at Checkers. Sigfreed dismissed it as a fluke and then Royy won again. Royy then defeated Sigfreed at Chess and then at every other game. What was going on? It wasn't supposed to work that way. Sigfreed couldn't allow it. Sigfreed locked Royy in the barn again and put Royy back on the meat diet. As Sigfreed had hoped, the meat diet had dulled Royy's cognitive abilities.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #147 Alexander's Shore
Alexander was walking along the beach in the Florida Keys, pulling a metal detector rig with the right hand and carrying the shovel in the left hand. Alexander had constructed a special rig, which was composed of 4 metal detectors attached to a bracket and handle for towing. The detectors beeped when detecting and had large visible lights on top for easy detection in the brightest sunlight. Alexander's dream was to find a gold doubloon.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #148 Mohandma's Tank
Mohandma had discovered the concept of the Sensory Deprivation Tank (SDT), which was a system of removing the exterior sensations of the patients and enabling the patients to intensify their brain control. The typical system involved a person lying naked in a tank of water in a soundproofed, unlit room.  By floating naked in the water, the sensation of touch was removed. The soundproofed, unlit room removed the sensations of hearing and sight.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #149 Aldo's Lockbox 2
Aldo was driving the 1969 Dodge Charger from Georgia to an island off South Carolina, to stash the lockbox before anyone could discover the vast wealth in the box.  Aldo swerved to avoid the animal in the road and the car went under the surface of the water, down into a deep pool at the bottom of the roaring waterfall.  Aldo opened his eyes to see a huge black snake at the bottom of the pool with a large green bullfrog in its mouth.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #150 Buck's Tunnel
Buck had to be dreaming, while awaking in a shallow stream of cold water. Buck looked up at the brick masonry and thought it was a cool looking ceiling. It wasn't the ceiling of a house. Buck's body was aching all over and the water was cold. Why was Buck still lying in it? Buck tried to get up, but couldn't. All Buck could do was lie there, like a sleeping alligator. The water was getting colder. Buck really had to get up out of the water.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #151 Rafi's Cave 3
Rafi is an 8 year old child living on a volcanic island who becomes trapped in a cave when a volcano unexpectedly erupts and covers the child's home and village with lava.  On the 77th day, Rafi awakened to tears again, waking up every day crying.  Rafi was sad and disillusioned and was beginning to give up hope.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #152 Icky's Gold 2
Icky is an Australian gold miner who encounters cantankerous contraptions, wild animals, harsh environment, weather and fellow miners while seeking a fortune in gold.  A rhino had sneaked up on a herd of kangaroos and caused them to stampede in Icky's direction.  The startled animals were soon running amok at full tilt, not watching where they were hopping.  Rhinos had been known to cause kangaroos to panic in that manner; for some reason, the rhinos enjoyed it.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #153 Solomonno's Seat

Solomonno walked down the narrow aisle of the commercial airplane and dreaded every moment. Solomonno had taken many trips via airplane, mostly due to work as a sales rep for a major pharmaceutical company. Solomonno could easily mange any person-to-person interchange on a business level, but despised having to tolerate close contact with strangers in public encounters. Since Solomonno's seats were purchased by the company, there was no seat choice.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #154 Teddy's Run 3
Teddy is a runner who hopes to win a 1962 Cadillac by running across the United States.  As could be imagined, Teddy "runs" into many challenges along the way, including filth, thirst, hunger, loneliness, injuries, scoffing, bullying and near-death experiences.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #155 Ute's Guy 2
Guy at 104 was happy living at home with the orangutan family.  Orangutans Ute and Agatha took the best care of Guy that orangutans could, including numerous diaper changes and more bathing than usual, but they didn't mind.  Guy had become like a father to Ute and Agatha and a grandfather to Ute's and Agatha's orangutan children Britney and Chelsea.  Britney and Chelsea began giving Guy his massages and baths and Guy really loved the creatures.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #156 Norberto's Pool
Public pools weren't suitable for true swimming; that was all there was to it. Norberto was adamant however and demanded the right to properly swim in a swimming pool. Norberto boldly swam in straight-line laps and encountered kid cliques that refused to break and Norberto broke through. Norberto smashed the way through couples and bumped into anybody who stood in the path, uncaring. Suddenly, whistles were blowing and lifeguards were barking orders.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #157 Spar's Flock 2
Spar is an African vulture that flies over the plains, eating everything it can find, including impala, zebra, rhino and giraffe, while it tries to survive as the leader of its flock of resilient and wiry birds.  After Spar's flock finished eating the 4 vultures that Spar had so easily killed, the flock stood in line to eat the remaining bits of zebra.  Spar ate as much as possible of the favorite parts and ate so much of the zebra that it caused vomiting.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #158 Taciano's Raft 2
Taciano knew they were headed for trouble from the moment they departed from the country of Cuba.  Taciano with family of 6, and friend Paco also with family of 6 had launched from northern Cuba in a ramshackle 13-foot boat that was maybe suited for a maximum of 10 people.  They were on their way to Florida, come what may.  The 14 people were prepared to endure whatever hardships they might encounter in order to begin their new and hopefully better lives.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #159 Delbert's Drive
As Delbert drove down the street that was crowded with cars on both sides, a kid on a skateboard suddenly darted out from between 2 cars parked on the right. Luckily, Delbert was alert enough to stop before hitting the wayward youth. The kid waved at Delbert and nonchalantly skateboarded down the middle of the street, probably on the way to school. Delbert politely waved back at the child and proceeded to work in a direction opposite to the skateboarder.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #160 Bone's Clan 2
Bone is a cave dweller in ancient times trying to exist by dealing with large and small dinosaurs, other fierce creatures, fellow cave people and generally poor physical/oral hygiene.  The names of the cave people were derived from their habits, skills or other reasons.  Bone's name came from eating the marrow from the bones of the slayed animals.  Another cave dweller was named Leaner, because of having such a large head that caused leaning.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #161 Axon's Prize 2
Axon is a pelican that lives in Monterey, California that spends its time pilfering any shiny objects that cross its path, including fishing reels, lighters, rings, watches, chains, eyeglasses and other choice bits.  For as long as the pelican could remember, things that sparkled had tickled its fancy.  Axon had quite the collection of twinkly things stashed in the large nest of the dead oak tree that was located about a mile inland from the boat marina.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #162 Larabie's Letters
At the next house, Larabie noticed a rotted smell. Larabie had fished and hunted throughout a lifetime and knew all too well the smell of rotting flesh or some kind of meat. Larabie was well acquainted with the odors of decaying fish, deer, rabbit, squirrel, raccoon and other game, but had never experienced the smell at this house. It was incredibly vile. The composition of the reeking entity made Larabie sick to the stomach.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #163 Nanko's Dogsled 2
Sled dog teams are a valuable commodity in Alaska.  When the snows were falling, some areas had no clear roads.  When no other form of transportation was possible, the sled would always be able to get through.  Nanko runs a dogsled team of 6 dogs in Alaska, on which medical supplies are shuttled between villages, while walruses, bears, snow, disease and bitter cold occasionally make life difficult.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #164 Yelloh's Cure 2
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive movement disorder, meaning that symptoms continue and worsen over time. Nearly one million people in the U.S. are living with Parkinson's Disease. The cause is unknown and there are treatment options such as medication and surgery to manage its symptoms. The great genius Yelloh cured Parkinson's Disease by removing the substantia nigra from brains of people with PD.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #165 Bertram's Banquet

Bertram began burping and farting again and wondered about the goose.  As Jaclyn ate pie, Jaclyn asked Ira again about the wink. Ira ignored Jaclyn and kept eating the pecan pie extravaganza.  Hannah asked Gabriel about Ira's wink and Ira tried to get up from the table.  Jaclyn pulled Ira back down into the chair. Jaclyn wasn't about to let Ira get away without explaining the wink.  Ira proclaimed the wink at Gabriel was because Ira and Gabriel had grown tired of eating dry turkey and chicken for years and really loved Adell's cooking-bag turkey.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #166 Ignacio's Itch 2
Ignacio jumped from the helicopter at the top of the ski run and landed in the snow as usual.  The impact caused a great shelf of snow to collapse and initiated an avalanche.  Ignacio was going down the mountain with it and had no control over the outcome, which left the skier buried, stuck and unable to move.  Even the strongest person on earth would be unable to move in that situation.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #167 Tatum's Mate 2
Chimpanzee Charlie was getting sick and tired of Tatum swinging around the jungle claiming to be as great as father Tarzan.  When Tarzan and Jane mated and little Tatum was born, Tatum vowed to replace Tarzan as the king of the jungle.  When Tarzan passed away after eating some excessively rotted hippo jerky, Tatum leaped to the throne.  However, Charlie had always been the real hero of Tatum's escapades.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #168 Abe's Arm
Of all the days to pick to break an arm, why did it have to be on the 4th of July? Abe recited the phrase over and over while sitting in the waiting room of the Emergency Room (ER) of the local hospital. Abe broke the arm by accident; no one breaks their arm on purpose, unless they are some kind of a psycho. Some people might risk breaking body parts as part of a childish bet, but Abe wasn't one of those fools.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #169 Ellsworth's Spark 2
Ellsworth missed many things about the homeland of Egypt, but mainly missed the heat, which forced the camel to figure out how to start fires.  Zookeepers ran into Ellsworth's paddock to retain the camels in the sleeping structure for their protection.  Soon, alarms were sounding in the zoo and the Fire Department arrived to extinguish the flaming pile of urine-soaked straw.  The smell of the smoke pouring from the burning pile was horrendous!

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #170 Harry's Heroes 2
Harry had been a therapy horse for people with stress-related issues for many years and had seen it all. Harry had helped countless people cope with their issues and most had gone on to lead happy and productive lives. However, Harry was tired of having to be so serious all the time. The horse had been a fun-loving and boisterous animal from an early age, but had become pigeonholed as a therapy horse, because of the owner.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #171 Pat's Gang 2
Pat and the 5 other members of the chain gang were actually some of the luckier members of the prison.  Knuckles, Slackjaw, Fisheyes, Bigtoes and Fingers had been on the waitlist for quite a while to work on a chain gang.  The medium security prison only had 9 chain gangs comprised of 54 lucky inmates.  The gangs were utilized in the Texas prison to clear the weeds from the dirt shoulders of the secondary highways.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #172 Landon's Whisper 2
Everybody said Landon was crazy for doing the job, but Landon didn't think it was that big of a deal.  Landon began working with animals after graduating early from high school at the age of 17 first at an animal shelter and then at a vet.  Landon discovered a spiritual bond with animals that few people possessed.  Landon's animal whispering abilities were labeled as absolutely phenomenal, otherworldly and even spooky.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #173 Tarantino's Taxi

Tarantino couldn't believe the foulness of the passenger in the back seat of the cab. Tarantino had endured the smells of countless fares over the past 3 years, but had never smelled anything so bad. The smelly goon had more than B.O.; he had B.B.O. (beyond B.O.) How could the lout walk around the city stinking like that? Tarantino was beginning to wonder if the stenching man was a homeless person who had been intending to skip out on the fare.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #174 Greg's Guess
While living at the river, Greg did a lot of thinking and realized that revealing the prescience in the past wouldn't have prevented or changed any of the outcomes. The pestilences that had plagued the region as of late were probably unpreventable. Greg valued the privacy of keeping the visions internalized. As sick as it was to keep the thoughts inside, it was the right thing to do. Greg couldn't risk becoming labeled as a witch or worse, because the country people were superstitious already.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #175 Todd's Tests
When Todd shared the idea with friends, they all thought Todd was crazy. Todd scoffed at them and decided to participate in spite of them. Todd was just that kind of a person. Todd would show them and become a guinea pig and become a part of something important that would help people. Maybe that was Todd's true calling in life, to help people in some way. Why not help people through scientific means? Yep, it was definitely the right thing to do at that point in Todd's life.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #176 Wellstein's Fixative
Wellstein tried to stay focused on the prize of getting back home with the newly discovered plants. Wellstein would then be able to begin the latest concoction, WTF41-Wellstein's Titillating Fixative, the 41st version. Wellstein had tried 40 times thus far with limited success. The formulas had been somewhat effective, but couldn't cure anything noteworthy. Wellstein didn't want to go down in history as being just another one of those idiots who sold those bogus potions that claimed everything and did nothing.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #177 Harrison's Hitches
Harrison walked backwards along the shoulder, face pointed in the direction of the rising sun with right thumb stuck out in the gesture of the ride hitcher. Harrison had been a hitchhiker for a lifetime, because Harrison never made enough money to buy a car or more specifically, never cared to own a car. Harrison enjoyed being an unfettered, unencumbered individual, free to roam and never settle down anywhere that wasn't suitable. Harrison was a wild spirit and was happy, with enough experiences through continuous hitchhiking to fill an encyclopedia.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #178 Ronnie's Barrow
Ronnie was doing pretty well, with a TV, a toaster, a vacuum cleaner and a box of books and should be able to make at least $20 selling the junk at the junkyard. Ronnie went around each morning through the streets of the neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods with the wheelbarrow. Any junk that seemed to be worth anything was kept. Ronnie employed a combination of methods to sell the junk, a large part of which was salesmanship.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #179 Pete's Parts
Pete had been waiting for the latest role for a lifetime, or what seemed like a lifetime anyway. Pete had been acting since the age of 3 in a Pre-School play playing Peter Pan. Pete had always credited that role with providing a great start in life, because for Pete, acting was life and life was acting. Pete's parents had always been very supportive of the acting and they had sent Pete to many acting schools to help perfect the craft.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #180 Danny's Hours
On that annoying Monday morning, the clock radio was supposed to go off at precisely 6:32 am. It didn't. Danny was one of many people who had their mornings timed to the minute, even the second. Sleep was of paramount importance to those people. They had their morning system organized so that they would get the most sleep possible. Danny allowed a precise amount of time for showering, breakfast, dressing, etc.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #181 Farragut's In-laws
Farragut had been dreading the day for a while. In a short month, Farragut and girlfriend Katt were meeting Katt's parents, Murry and Flo for the first time. Farragut didn't know where the nervousness came from, being such a levelheaded character. Farragut had a decent job, no criminal record and was a Scout leader. What's not to like? Perhaps it was the way that Katt had built up Murry's image to the point that had placed Murry on a pedestal.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #182 Irish's Wait
After an hour of waiting at Balzo's, everyone in the line had red-sunburned faces, but Irish was finally at the door! Yes! There was no air conditioning in the large foyer of the garage and it was really smelly and muggy in there. It smelled like mold, chewing tobacco, cigarette smoke, sweat, failed deodorant, grease, dirt, dead mice, cat piss, burned coffee from the coffee maker and Ben-Gay, probably from the old person in line behind Irish.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #183 Dribbler's Diet
A few more years passed and Yola began complaining again. Yola missed her 1000-pound husband Zamphir. At 750 pounds, Zamphir simply wasn't satisfying Yola in the bedroom. Nutritionist Dribbler had more serious deliberations with Zamphir and Yola until push finally came to shove. Yola eventually filed for divorce and left Zamphir alone with Dribbler's diet. Dribbler was doing the right thing for Zamphir's longevity and Zamphir agreed.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #184 Stroker's Spells
Stroker's best stuff was reserved for when the boss, usually a King, occasionally a Queen, wanted someone out of the way, so to speak. By out of the way, obviously, it meant that the people on whom the spells had been cast would no longer be of this earth, as they say. Stroker wasn't by any means limited to the so-called "ending spells." Stroker could perform any manner of evilness, such as when one of the viceroys would suddenly get a potent case of diarrhea.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #185 Bronchial's Beat
Just when Bronchial had thought that the most bizarre Police call had been heard, another one came along to beat it. Bronchial was cruising with partner Artery on a routine patrol, when a call came in about a cat that wouldn't come out of the oven. Apparently, the cat's owner had opened the oven door to place aluminum foil in the bottom before using it, to catch spills. The cat jumped into the oven and wouldn't come out.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #186 Gig's Gathering
Initially when Gig opened the invitation, the first impulse was to throw it in the garbage, which is what happened. After a few days of sitting in the trash can next to the desk in the den of the house, Gig fished out the invitation and read it again. The 10-year High School reunion; wow, was it 10 years already? It seemed that Gig had just graduated and was already 10 years away from it. Gig hadn't married and had no kids or even a girlfriend.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #187 Rick's Remedies
In the early 1800's, Rick had started out as a young doctor in the busy city and learned the craft very well. Rick decided after 46 years to head out to the country somewhere and become a country doctor to treat people Rick's way. During the time in the city, Rick had always kept up on the latest scientific research as it related to healthcare. There seemed to be more of a push lately toward natural treatments, such as bloodletting and using a hot iron for hemorrhoids.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #188 Virel's Visions
Sometimes, Virel would think about something during the day and then dream about that very thing that night. It was a fascinating subject. Virel wondered if it would be possible to intentionally dream about something by thinking hard enough about it. Virel decided to try. After a while, Virel bought tickets for every available lottery where the purchasers picked the numbers. Virel carefully thought about the tickets, dreamed the numbers and wrote them down.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #189 Figg's Fantasies
It was every child's dream to find a genie in a bottle and have wishes granted by the genie. For that matter, it was every adult's dream to find a genie in a bottle as well. Figg was one of those genies. The problem was that the people who made the wishes never correctly stated their wishes. They always received something unexpected along with their actual wish. Little Ralphie had been rummaging through the pile of junk at the local junkyard for 3 hours when he found the old dull brass oil lamp.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #190 Jeppo's Jobs
Jeppo was one of those shady contractors whom everyone had heard about; there was no question about it. Jeppo knew it and the one-time customers knew it. Jeppo refused to use Angie's List or Home Advisor, because Jeppo would have had nothing but bad reviews on those websites. Jeppo got jobs from slumlords who were all as shady as Jeppo was, some even shadier. It didn't matter if Jeppo did quality work; as long as Jeppo did the minimum, it was ok for the slumlords.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #191 Miko's Beach
Miko was a superior swimmer and had to be in order to be a lifeguard. Miko had been born and raised on the beach in sunny southern California and loved the sand and ocean. Miko really savored surfing and water sports and it was suggested by Miko's mother to become a lifeguard after graduating from High School. The 12-week training and certification course was a breeze for Miko, who graduated at the top of the class.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #192 Flad's Faith
When Flad's supervisor arrived, the boss was impressed by the conditions of the village grounds, water supply and sewage system. Flad's supervisor then asked how the people were doing at learning English. Flad had each villager proudly orate a memorized line to the supervisor, who was impressed even more. When Flad's supervisor asked Flad about the conversion to Catholicism, Flad frowned. Flad nervously explained how the people had their own belief system that was perfect.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #193 Yigger's Boys
Ever since Yigger was released from prison for a minor offense, Yigger had wanted to become a correction officer. It was similar to when street punks became Police officers. There's something about being bad boys that made some of them want to become part of a system in which they could help people in their own way. Yigger successfully passed the necessary testing and completed the physical and psychological training.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #194 Aquel's Cash
Aquel had always been fascinated by watching the old movies with the bank robbers. It seemed like such a daring and action-packed adventure. Aquel didn't particularly go in for the shootings and injuries related to the robberies. Aquel just liked the fact that the bank robbers seemed to make it look so easy. How hard could it possibly be? Everyone knew that there were hidden buttons everywhere that would signal a silent alarm to the Police, but the key to the arrival of the Police was how far away they were.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #195 Carik's Challenge
If Carik could manage to drag the freshly bagged sea lion home before the snow became too deep, Carik and family would be set for a while, food wise. In the Arctic, saying that life was difficult was an understatement. Carik had 7 mouths to feed including wife Bubik, daughters Breebik & Deedik and sons Karlik, Pralik & Harlik. It had taken Carik 4 hours of waiting at the ice-air hole of the sea lion. It had taken 4 days to find the air hole in the first place.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #196 Efrem's Plight
Spoiled brat Efrem was powerless to do anything, because of being tied to the chair. Efrem was really uncomfortable, mainly because of being forced to wait for bathroom breaks. Efrem was well fed and taken care of surprisingly well, but hated having to sit in that stupid chair all day long. Efrem's captors claimed that they were asking Efrem's parents for the sum of 1 million dollars; so why was it taking so long? After all those days of waiting, Efrem began to wonder if his parents were actually going to pay the ransom.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #197 Ibarr's Fun
Ibarr was in the middle of triaging a 17-year old for emergency surgery. The victim had been struck by a car while skateboarding down the street. Stupid kid, thought Ibarr. Ibarr was interning at the Emergency Room and life was a blur, being forced to work long hours at the hospital as part of the internship. Ibarr was learning on a continuous basis and it was the type of learning that a person really needed to have the stomach for.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #198 Jingo's Vote
Jingo was one of those dangerous old-school politicians who believed to be above the constituents. Didn't all politicians feel that way? Jingo had been born into wealth and had increased the wealth after entering the world. Unsurprisingly, Jingo had been given a job in father's firm after graduating from Harvard. Jingo was a successful lawyer who went after the myriad high-level mischief-makers and knew the political system very well, too well.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #199 Keto's Line
The 2 officers were in hot pursuit of the trio. The officers' vehicle was a 4-wheel drive and it gripped the sand and dirt like there was no tomorrow. Keto was one of the officers and was driving the U.S. government-supplied vehicle and adrenaline was flowing. Sanpedro was the other officer who was riding shotgun in the passenger seat next to Keto. Those illegal immigrants weren't about to make it across the Texas/Mexican border on their watch.

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Stories #200 Lucky's Fans
Lucky wasn't homeless, but was actually quite well off as the CEO of a specialized military parts manufacturing company. Lucky had been volunteering at the soup kitchen as part of a sociological study for fun. Lucky performed similar studies while in college and had always been fascinated by them. Lucky volunteered at the kitchen during mornings before work. Lucky's company had been dangerously borrowing against future military contracts that it thought would last forever, but didn't.
 

 

 

 

 

Mudcat Mikey's 200 Short Stories #1 to #200 are thought-provoking and action-packed stories comprised of:

Desperate Gold Miners, Rotted-Meat Eating Vultures, Greedy Treasure Hunters, Rambunctious Beagles, Aggressive Cave Dwellers, Crazed Roosters, Foolhardy Runners, Quirky Pelicans, Expert Anglers, Gigantic Dinosaurs, Robust Dogsleds, Enormous Alligators, Near-Drowning Swimmers, Talented Dolphins, Lost Children, Insane Octopi, Troublesome Lockboxes, Huge Gangly Cats, Unpredictable Skiers, Intelligent Gorillas, Failed Balloonists, Mystical Magical Elephants, Reckless Mountain Climbers, Law-Enforcement Lions, Mysterious Yetis, Confused Bears, Wondrous Mini-Horses, All Manner of Monsters, Garbage Dump Raccoons, Suicidal Racecar Drivers, Troublesome Bats, Stinging Scorpions, Anguished Gamblers, Colossal Mudcats (Catfish), Chucklesome Clowns, Industrious Beavers, Downcast Werewolves, Useful Laboratory Rats, Emergency Telephones, Arsonistic Camels, Devoted Butlers, Terrifying Tarantulas, Despotic Kings, Fearsome Wizards, Menacing Moles, Savage Sharks, Idiotic Illusionists, Playful Pigs, Evil Hypnotists, Massive Ostriches, Half-Witted Psychiatrists, Death-Dealing Bulls, Vivacious Ventriloquists, Pesky Woodchucks, Murderous Secret Agents, Leaping Lizards, Engulfing Quicksand, Accelerating Cheetahs, Tainted Daredevils, Ferocious Snapping Turtles, Underpaid Pony Express Riders, Miserable Wolves, Stouthearted Pilots, Uproarious Screaming Goats, Buried Army Tanks, Lawbreaking Ferrets, Moronic Survivalists, Big Scary Creatures, Imbecilic Buckaroo Cowboys, Untamed Talking Parrots, Unscrupulous Bounty Hunters, Nut-Crazed Squirrels, Zany Zookeepers, Astounding Geniuses, Accomplished Pianists, Special Service Dogs, Proud Native Americans, Herculean Orangutans, Plucky Lobster Harvesters, Deranged Arsonists, Cheerful Santa Claus, Badboy Billionaires, Vexing Pet Stores, Proficient Entertainers, Numerous UFO Sightings, Enterprising Chemists, Overworked Pathologists, Chucklesome Storytellers, Lavish Resorts, Broken Recreational Vehicles, First-Class Inventors, Materialistic Private Investigators, Idyllic Deserted Islands, Loving Chimpanzees, Corrupt Computers, Loggerheaded Cryonics Concepts, Stem Cell Scientists, Underappreciated Dentists, Mercenary Concierges, Distraught Immigrants, Transcendent Animal Whisperers, Uppity Restaurant Servers, Despondent Homeless People, Chiseling Defrauding Grifters, Transgressing Dumb Convicts, Titillating Time Travel, Breakneck Gnarly Pirates, Pusillanimous Actors, Blood-Lusting Vampires, Tireless Truck Drivers, Crafty Oil Well Firefighters, Rotten Educated Stockbrokers, Brain Dead Mentalists, Huge Contented Hippos, Nervous Combatants, Well-Meaning Hooligans, Assiduous Migrant Workers, Psychotic Psychotherapists, Testosterone-Laden Movie Producers, Surprising Cave Musicians, Downhearted Misanthropes, Unflagging Boy Scouts, Unhinged Goofy Cavers, Disgusting Wasteful Obesity, Pig-Herdable Sheep, Always-Useful Bicycles, Tenacious Twins, Bold Bald Eagles, Our Indispensable Farmers, Malcontent Cashiers, Disgruntled Office Workers, Local Superheroes, Strange Church Confessions, Secret-Keeping Priests, Ouija boards, Boldfaced Lying Psychics, Hippy Resurrectionists, Sensory Deprivation Tanks, Scary Tunnels, Annoying Air Travel, Filthy Swimming Pools, Road-Raging Commuters, Gallant Letter Carriers, Nosy Knot-Headed Neurologists, Thanksgiving Horrors, Disciplinary Ponies, Maniacal Taxi Drivers, True Visionaries, Human Subjects, Life-Risking Hitchhikers, Dirt-Poor Scroungers, Trials and Tribulations, Ridiculous Politicians, Waiting in Lines, Healthy Happy Nutritionists, Crafty Scheming Warlocks, Cherished Police, Family Reunions, Maleficent Genies, Unprincipled Unethical Contractors, Tanned Lifeguards, Trusting Missionaries, Tough Correction Officers, Oafish Bank Robbers, Alaskan Eskimos, Ruthless Kidnappers, Stressed ER Doctors, Dedicated Immigration Officers and Lifesaving Food Kitchens!