Junior Journalists: Circus Cowboys

This story was submitted by a student in response to last week’s Kids Corner Junior Journalist prompt, which challenged young writers to imagine what happened when circus animals escaped after a train crash near Albany.

By Tanner Howe

6th Grade

There was a train coming to town on Friday carrying exotic circus animals. The train hit a deer trying to cross the railroad tracks, which resulted in the train rolling end over end, until finally the engine exploded. After the engine exploded, the animals escaped and started to run wild. The lions, tigers, bears, and hyenas went straight to chasing the people in town. All the elephants went swimming in the river, which caused the banks to overflow and flood the town. The zebras, giraffes, and wildebeests went into the pastures and caused mayhem with the cattle. At this time, all the cowboys were coming into town from the hilltop, and saw everything unfold below. They began racing down the hill and into town. Little Timmy was just a boy, but he did most of the work. Riding upon his pony, he wrangled up 4 lions, 2 bears, 14 hyenas, and 2 tigers. The other cowboys caught the animals in the pasture and proceeded to herd them into town. After all the animals were together, the cowboys rode all the way to Kentucky to drop off the exotics at the circus. Little Timmy was hailed as a hero and lived the rest of his days chasing bandits and restoring peace in Albany.