The cat escaped winter’s cold and never looked back.
The Carrot Ranch February 20 challenge? In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a library cat named Rainbow who escapes. Use this situation to write what happens next. Where does this situation take place, and who else might be involved? Go where the prompt leads! This week’s Six Sentence Stories prompt word? Claim. Here’s one story answering two prompts. Thanks Charli! Thanks Denise!
Rainbow’s End
Following close on snowy heels of library patrons, the cat escaped winter’s cold and never looked back. Nobody claimed the stray; the cat with the bold stripes and bolder personality was allowed to keep its claim on the stuffed chair in Fiction.
When children read picture books aloud to him, the cat they called Rainbow purred blissfully. Rainbow gained a reputation among adult browsers, pawing titles they might otherwise have passed by.
Finally returned from vacation, the cat’s owners followed the stories to the library. Along with an endowment for books and for his care, they left Rainbow there.
Aw! that’s a sweet one! Love it.
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Thank you. I appreciate the visit.
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Well, talk about a feel good Six. Nice 🙂
I was raised from a baby around dogs. Always dogs until a point in young adulthood when I had a relationship with a cat person. But even then, I treated them as dogs lol. One of them, would drape herself on my arm as I wrote in my weekly journal on Sundays. Perhaps felines are inclined toward all things academia? 🙂
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I’m on my second adulthood cat and can tell you that both were inclined to write, that is grab at a pen I might be wielding, or put their paws on the keyboard and see what comes of it. I assume this one also reads. She must, she’s surrounded by books and can’t possibly be sleeping all day. Can she?
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I’m inclined to think the sleep thing is a ruse, lol
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Rainbow seems a great advocate for libraries. (You should get a cat like that and take it for a walk. Or to class.)
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Ha, ha, Anne. My cat will walk on a leash, rides well in the truck, and used to go in to the classroom for weekend work when I was at the elementary school where she seemed to favor being in the classroom library. Of course she is a poor substitute for the one true pet.
Thanks for the visit. May Dog be with you.
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Awww so sweet! Have you read about Dewey?
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I did read that a long time ago.
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excellent Six.
“Following close on snowy heels of library patrons,”
Hey, thanks for the reminder of better writing* I liked the story, ’cause it was engaging and visualizable** and had a satisfying ending.
But then when I went back over for commentational purposes, it hit me that the opening line was a verb.
Well, not literally, but you know what I mean. It makes for so much more accessible a Six.
This is the kind of learning and practice and such that I enjoy, i.e. reading and trying to decipher the underlying technique.
Thanks
* As noted in these pages before, I will occasionally subject myself to a the endless sites on rhetoric and how to write good, but there ain’t no writer’s block as densely powerful (imo) as reading about ‘How it is supposed to be done’.
** probably not a ‘real’ word
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Dear Clark;
I can assure you that I have no idea ‘how it is supposed to be done’ but if what I do makes for an accessible Six, then I am gratified. It does make sense to read and pay attention to what you like and why. And I have come to greatly appreciate the constraints of these two challenges, the 99 word limit from Carrot Ranch and/or the six sentence limit from Denise. That first line did change and I like its current incarnation better too, but really it’s just because I had to get the cat in the dang door and only had so many words overall to get the cat from here to there. This Carrot Ranch prompt was different still this week, with the cat, its name, and its initial situation being given. (Because I am contrary, ornery even, I reversed it and had the cat escape into the library instead of away from it) You might enjoy not just the prompts over there at the Ranch but also Charli’s posts. We all have benefitted from the course work she is doing, getting her MFA in creative writing. She does the work, we get the synopsis. I at least challenge you to present your next Six Sentence story in 99 words exactly. It forces word choice, leading to better verbs and fewer similes and adjectives. Even if you have a longer story in mind you can boil it or a scene down to its essence. You can always expand it later, but might find that less is more and the scene better told. Least ways that’s the kool-aid I drank at the Ranch.
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follow-up to the aforementioned challenge…
nine-tee-nine?!! sure, that’s a short, short story…. but!
thats &(*$& less than two trips over the keyboard! without counting non-letteristic keys
lol
your challenge accepted.
(I trust the use of italics above was not lost on you…)
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It is a short short story- or just use the 99 words as a tool to refine a specific scene or characterization. Have fun!
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Aw, this reminds me of the second-hand bookstore that used to be in my neighborhood. they had a cat named the great catsby.
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What a great name! Yes, I have met a few bookstore cats and dogs. I love that.
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Great six. very sweet and Clark, we’re writers, we say what’s a word and what isn’t! HA
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Thank you, and yes, I agree with you about making up words, sorry, Creating words. Someone has to do it. (Ever read Frindle, a young adult novel by Andrew Clements? Good read)
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I don’t know what it is with cats and books. Every book store around me has a cat. Surprised our library doesn’t have one too.
Great six and flash!
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You have good bookstores around you! Thanks Susan.
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Well done, D. I love what you did with Rainbow. ❤
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Thanks Colleen. I’m off to read more Rainbow stories now.
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I’m still writing… tomorrow is another day. 😀 ❤
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This is a great community story and a selfless act by Rainbow’s humans to share the cat with library patrons. Besides, when you are that bold, you need a bigger audience.
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Just went where the prompt led Boss. Glad if you appreciate this cat tale.
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I like how the owners leave Rainbow in the library. Written very well.
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Thank you. Rainbow belongs there. Besides, they managed to leave him out while vacationing. Yep, everyone concerned is better off.
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Sad that Rainbow was lost in the first place, but glad he found such a wonderful home! What better place for a cat to spend days then sleeping and purring happily while listening to stories. Love that the cat pawed at titles that patrons then selected – awesome! Maybe I should take my cats to the library. Hmm…
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Yep, everything turns out good in this one. Thanks for coming by.
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This is a great story, D. I love the generosity of everyone in the story. Rainbow cat becomes the library cat and everyone benefits.
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Oh I like that story! I like the ending best, that they let him stay at the library and with some endowment. It’s different take on happily ever after. Normally I prefer lost animals make it home but here it seems they left him where he would live his best life. 😀 Nice work!
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It seemed a fine way to spend my 99 words, to put everyone in the best situation. Maybe Rainbow did make it home, his new home in the library. Thank you for coming by!
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