For Sonya’s Three Line Tales prompt. A cat story.
Raymond’s old lady hadn’t stirred that morning, not even when he licked her face and meowled very loudly in her ear, and he couldn’t get into the plastic container where she kept the biscuits.
He wriggled through the cat flap and whisked his tail in indecision—wall or tree?
The wall led a long way, longer than Raymond had ever been before, but he knew where he was going, could smell it as soon as he left the confines of the garden, his new life—he had always wanted to be a ship’s cat.
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Such a lovely glimpse. Thank you 🙂
My pleasure, Fran! I love cat stories 🙂
Gotta admit, Jane, you’ve become one of my favorite writers. This is wonderful!
That’s lovely of you to say so, Sarah 🙂 Maybe I should give up the novels and stick to flash fiction.
So, Raymond’s old lady has passed on and it’s time to seek pastures (or oceans) new. Ah, the fickle nature of the feline! Though there is something about the seafaring life that suits a cat. Lovely, well paced tale, Jane
We had a Raymond who breezed in one day and breezed out again a year later. I think he’d have made a good ship’s cat 🙂
Some do that, don’t they? Hang about a bit then bog off when a better offer comes up. You can’t rely on them, but at least they don’t need much looking after. And Raymond is a great name for a cat 🙂
I thought Raymond suited him very well. I used his name for a password for something or other and there was a glitch that meant I had to telephone to ask for a new password. The woman wanted to know the old one. When I said, Raymond, there was a pause, and then she asked, Raymond? I was a bit non-plussed and said, Yes, Raymond, it’s the name of our cat. She said, You have a cat called Raymond? I thought this was getting a bit surreal. Yes, I said, why? There was another pause and she said, I have an uncle called Raymond. I must say this is in France and people have funny ideas.
Haha! Love how non plussed she was -surely Raymond isn’t that odd a name? I remember ringing a woman about some flowers we were unable to deliver for her. When she asked my and I told her, she just laughed out loud and swore that swore that I was joking, that I was a prank call set up by her friends. Patiently, I had to explain that I was not a prank, that I was indeed called Lynn Love. I think she was a little embarrassed after that 🙂
Did she think you were saying, it’s Lynn, love? Yorkshire folk would have assumed that 🙂 French people give their pets names that I find completely wacky (I mean, a fat Staffie called Pegasus?), but they think it’s weird to give an animal a human name.
Ha! Pegasus the chubby Staffie? Very good. I don’t mind a human name for a pet, and Raymond has some gravitas to it 🙂
It depends on the creature, but I tend to think respectful names are best (like Raymond) rather than Joker or Cartoon or Lantern, not to mention Virus and Tonsilitis all of whom I know and sympathise with 🙂
Tonsilitus? Really? That’s like calling someone Salmonella or Listeria because you think the word is pretty. I know of a mixed race boy whose mother called him Toffee – that takes some beating
Her owner is a bit bizarre. Plays a mouth organ in the park for fun. Toffee! Poor kid! That sounds insulting. I doubt she’d be allowed to do that here.
I know, awful, isn’t it? Positively racist really. Well, if you’re going to be eccentric, do it with a harmonica and a weirdly named pet!
Angine has a prettier ring to it than tonsilitis so maybe she just liked the sound of the name.
So many things sound nicer in a different language, it’s true! 🙂
Musical almost 🙂
Yes, exactly. Be interesting to know what English sounds like to people who primarily speak other languages. Somehow, I doubt we sound as musical as say French or Italian sounds to us 🙂
Compared to Bulgarian, English sounds pretty operatic 🙂
Don’t think I’ve ever really listened to Bulgarian, so I’ll have to take your word for that. I guess we have to sound good against something! 🙂
I’m sure that Bulgarian sounds beautiful when you understand it.
I’m sure you’re right 🙂
🙂
Haven’t we all dreamed of being a ship’s cat…or a circus lion?
If people can get a taste for the sea, why not cats? A circus lion though…nope. Not never. I hate seeing animals do tricks and imaging the cruelty involved in getting them ‘trained’.
Great take on the photo.
Thank you 🙂
Describes the nature of cats to a ‘T”. If they don’t get their biscuit at home, they will roam.
They’re probably right too. Dogs don’t. They’d hang around the corpse until they died too and everyone praises their loyalty (which it is, of course) but they’d still be dead or miserable. Cats move on.
Ha – he moved on quickly :D. Great tale, Jane.
Cats don’t hang about. Why should they? Thank you!
A great catty story. Your writings are sheer pleasure, Jane.
Thank you, Neel! You can’t beat cats for finding a good story 🙂