There once was a leopard with a greedy heart who fell into a losing streak. The slots fell through, and he was no good at black jack. Then, one day he happened upon an unclaimed lottery ticket. He noticed that although the numbers had been filled in, no one had checked to see if it was a winner or not. The prior owner must have rolled down the window and it flew out. Or the ticket was thrown out of a car window by an all too familiar sight of a girlfriend gone psycho. In either case, the greedy snow leopard decided to test his luck one last time.

He slinked into the nearest AM/PM and skulked up to the counter. After smacking the ticket onto the sticky counter, his fur stuck to it. Previously tainted by a poor cleanup job from a spilled slurpee. He then peered behind the counter through the rolling hotdogs and greasy fried potatoes. There he saw an intrepid old timer stepping up onto a stool in order to perfectly stack the new shipment of Pall Malls into a symmetrical pyramid.

Upon gaining the attention of the old-timer behind the counter, He let out a low growl and asked, “Do I have a winner or not?” The old man looked at the leopard and he looked at the ticket. He looked again at the leopard and looked again at the ticket. With a suspicious grin, He asked the spotted cat, “Where did you get this?” He then said, “You know the last cat to bring in a lottery ticket was a cheetah. You know what they say about cheetahs?” “What?” asks the leopard. “”They never prosper.” and he chuckled to himself. The leopard’s tail flicked back and forth. You could see the points of his teeth when he grinned at the man. Looking to either side of him and back to the teller he asked, “One more time Chief. Is this a winner?”

The man behind the register slid the ticket under the thin crusty plexiglass in order to scan it. He did so and to his surprise the ticket revealed itself to be a jackpot winner. The leopard read the expression on the eyes of the man. “I thought so!” The leopard exhumed from his underbelly that stood above his quivering knees. “Now give me what I’ve won.” he hissed.

The old man opened the register and grabbed a handful of dead presidents and began counting out the greenbacks to the cat. “One, two, three, four, five, hundred dollars.” The leopard grabbed the bills with his left paws and bolted out the door. He had finally won, but he was not satisfied with his new found luck.

 As the leopard slinked through the parking lot he was looking at the money in his hands. It began to turn to dusk. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a Lincoln Continental slide into the lot in front of him. A few jaguars flew the doors open and walked straight towards him. He could tell they were a part of the Mob. The Feline Mafia to be exact. 

The leopard knew he was a dead cat and that his greed had finally caught up to him. He wished he had never even found that stupid ticket. He owed them five-hundred dollars. He remembered his winnings and handed the money over to the bad cats. Then, he thought to himself. “Maybe my luck isn't so bad after all.”