A Ratcatching Swizz Gone Awry

A Ratcatching Swizz Gone Awry
Photo by Stéfano Girardelli / Unsplash

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Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

This is a disgrace! I, the greatest scammer in the city, swindled by a cat!
Now a dozen restaurant owners are after me, my vital anonymity is in tatters, my boots stink of rat shit, and - worst of all! - the wretched beast ran off with my favourite hat.
In retrospect I should’ve been more suspicious when “Puss” approached me. But her preposition seemed reasonable - and far more profitable than any of my previous ventures. We could have both made a fortune!
And I was cautious, I feel. I insisted that she demonstrate being able to talk to other animals. She certainly managed to convince all the ratters to avoid the restaurant quarter, which must have taken incredible convincing. Really it was perfectly understandable that I believed in her goodwill.
Oh, if only I’d kept to my usual tricks! My comfortable routine of tricking greedy fools from their unearned wealth.
I thought that cat a kindred soul, but clearly she was a selfish lying conniving creature. And when I catch her I’ll turn her into a muff!
***
On the other side of town Ginger was curled in her human’s lap, gently purring.
He’d been relieved to see her home after her absence, and delighted and amazed that she’d brought back his beloved hat.
“I shall never go gambling again.” He promised, between lavishing her with forehead kisses.
She’d endured a bath - unpleasant, but less so than trying to wash all that muck off herself. And the money she’d bundled into the hat meant that not only was the rent paid but there was plenty for rainy days, with a comfortable allowance for rabbit. She gave a smug meaty burp.
While this wouldn’t help all the other desperate fools who’d been taken in by that swindler, perhaps they would be gratified to hear how he’d been unmasked and disgraced. He’d likely be run out of the city before the week was up.
There were many ways to tackle a rat.

Prompt was “Your main character, who scams people for a living, gets a taste of their own medicine.”

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