A cat.

So, oh friends who are knowledgeable about cat politics, what would you advise my father? I've already sent my advice.

A Cat

This began quite innocently.

I've been playing the cat game for years, something I made up one evening's walk back when we lived in Alice, the house. Do you remember Alice? [Editor's note: Yes, my dad named his house "Alice." If you saw the house you'd understand.]

Toronto's beaches community is the kind of place that attracts cat people, and so there are cats prowling all over the place. Some are stand-offish, some gregarious, and others are total sucks. Never mind why, but on one evening's walk I made a game of it, counting two points for a sighting, five points for a touch, and seven if I could cause the cat to come to me and suffer my hand upon it. The record is somewhere under one hundred points.

Last week a very plump tortise shell cat wandered into our back garden and onto the deck. I did my usual cat talk and he (or she, or it) came right to me. I rubbed its head, stroked its ample sides and we had a most satisfying commune. A definite seven. The problem is, the cat won't leave.

It's a well fed cat. There are no signs of abuse or neglect. Good fur. No sense that this is a cat in need of a home.

As I said, we had a very nice visit, and I assumed that the cat would go home when I locked up for the night. Not so. Next morning, cat was still there. Annie didn't help at all, she let the cat in the house. Cat looked the entire place over and gave it it's complete approval. Eventually Annie had to put the cat outside. Note there were no frenzies involved, No hissing or scratching. Just very sad and disappointed cat sounds.

We left for a five day journey down the Hudson River Valley on an art, poetry and food break – one last treat before I become a temporary invalid. [Editor's note: My dad is going in for foot surgery.]

That should have been ample time to discourage any cat, but not this one. Still there, insistent. And the cat has a point: "Hey, you let me in before, why not now? What did I do? What did I say? Is there a problem? Let's talk. I can make some changes, lose a little weight. Come on! Don't just slam the door in my face!"

And now I feel terrible.

This is someone's cat. Why does it prefer to be here? Is it an abandoned kitty? What's going on?

What would happen if we took it in?

Is there any higher complement from the animal kingdom than being chosen by a cat?

Is this hubris of the highest order?

Why won't the cat go away?

All thoughts on the subject will be most welcome.

By the way, the cats name in our household is, Speckles. Because of it's most interesting coat.

I'll note he's already named the kitty.

Published. On real paper.

In the midst of not-so-great finals, there's one piece of good news:

My first published short story is out. It's here, in my hand, published on actual paper. Also, the college journal is really nice.

Here's the story. I was at the bus stop when I bumped into Adam, a friend of mine from creative writing class (also, such an excellent writer). He mentioned, "Oh, hey, I'm the editor of this journal. I don't know if you're interested but the deadline's tomorrow. You have any short stories lying around?"

I said yes, thinking, only if fanfiction counts.

Well, I did have a couple original fics that I didn't particularly like, and I had one fanfic story I thought I could de-fanfic. I said, what the heck, it can't hurt to try. I took an hour and de-fanficced Liar's Chair, just because I happen to like that story. I de-fanficced The Other Man as well.

I will add that my de-fanficcing was done with a very light hand, and the changes are transparent. Though I did change the background to a vision of the near future where countries' have sent the military into space to claim every habitable planet for one nation or another, regardless of whether they can be colonized.

To my complete and utter surprise they accepted the new version of Liar's Chair.

Now it's published. On paper. Right here in my hand. With my real name on it.

I like this. I think I'll do this again.


P.S. I'm not getting comments, so if I haven't responded it's because I haven't wandered back to my posts to see if anyone's replied. Also, oh god, I'm not admitting how much I have to do. Tomorrow's the drop dead deadline for everything at school.

Who me? I'm not procrastinating over the papers due tomorrow, oh no.

On the motivational front (that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it), here are the things I'll be able to write once I finish the quarter:

Supernatural

That NC-17 Wincest PWP
That Sam/Transvestite story
The rest of "Dean woke up gay"
The dine and dash story
The hoodoo ceremony story where Dean's taught a ceremony to do for Sam and finally gets it right
The NC-17 Wincest story where Sam and Dean aren't into it and snipe at eachother the whole time
That story set in Ann Arbor, Michigan, around the fairy doors
The other wee!chester story about Dean's first hunt
The "white liver" story

Stargate Atlantis

Out Of Bounds figure skating! The competition! The breakthrough! The end!
The rest of that "John Screws Up" story
Okay, maybe that warlord!John Sheppard AU

Harry Potter

Update to Little Boy Blue, perhaps