Critters big and small

I have often told people that I live a life filled with animals. While this statement is not as true as it once was, it's no lie either.

Right now it's just me and my two cats as far as animals I live with. A promised poodle on the way as well in a year or two, but she's not here yet. However, one of my good friends is a poodle breeder. Another good friend happens to own four dogs, two cats, two horses, two guinea pigs, a bearded dragon and a snake, my best friend shows and trains horses - I have no idea how many she has now, has barn cats and four dogs. These are the people I spend most of my time with.

Once upon a time I used to be a dog trainer as well. I don't really do any training anymore except by special request, but I kinda miss. I don't miss dealing with idiot dog owners, but I miss dealing with all kinds of dogs and their different personality. I regret never getting around to learning schutzhund.

Why do I bring this up?

Because today I spent the day with another dog trainer, an active one. I didn't do any training, but I watched. It reminded me that I would really like to do training again.....even if it's only ever for my own dogs.

Flash Fiction

As I've mentioned a few times before. I am putting a focus on the short story and the art of brevity for a little bit in hopes that it will improve my writing. When I came across a very awesome piece of flash fiction written by a friend of mine The Capillary. Her piece "You Can't Even Tell" is wonderfully written and an engaging read.

It was out of curiosity that I followed the link that she provided about the Platform Building Campaigner Challenge. I was very intrigued. I'd never attempted to write anything so short. So, much inspired by the wonderfulness of what I read, I decided to give it a shot, even though I am not actually a participant in the Platform Building Campaign.

So this was my attempt, but I don't think it really counts as a story. It was an attempt to do everything asked for in regards to extra challenges. I'm sure I could probably do better then this, but I didn't want to sit on it for too long and I've been so busy nursing my cat back to health. So I wrote this just this evening and spent maybe 30min on the edit for word count. It is currently unnamed.

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The door swung open and I hoped it was him. A handsome man around my age, but he walked right by, roses in hand to the table of someone prettier than I. Averting my stare and adjusting the white rose I wore pinned to my chest, I waited for the door to open again.

This time it was an older gentleman, well groomed and flashing hints of gold around his neck and wrist. I sipped my water and watched him through my lashes. He glanced around briefly and then made his way towards a woman whose ears sparkled in the pale candlelight.

Thirty minutes past the hour, according to my watch, and the door stayed stubbornly still. The time had come and gone.

“Still waiting on your guest?”

“No, I don’t think anyone’s coming tonight.”

“Well maybe he’ll show up tomorrow.”

“Yeah. I’ll take the usual to go.”

“Already got it packed,” Nancy placed the container on the table and I grabbed my single, lonely meal as I stood to leave

“See you tomorrow.”

Nancy pushed the door open for me. “We’ll have the table ready like always.”

“Thanks.” I stepped out into the night and the door swung shut.

Short Story Recap

I've been working on my short story goal. I've finished the first draft of a twist on the phantom hitchhiker tale. I like it, but it could use a little more panache. I'm not sure I'm conveying the emotions of my MC in such a way as to create proper suspense. Unfortunately, my time has been precious with a cat to nurse, but I'm trying.

I have another idea for a short story based on the song "Hotel California" by The Eagles. It's an idea that I've had stuck in my head for over a year now. My brain has been working at it, trying to look at it from all angles. Create the twist in the ending that I really want and keep the reader guessing about the reliability of the narrator.

First though, edit the one I just wrote. I'll prolly post it over at my other blog (I'll tweet the post if I do that).

Force feeding a cat is no easy or fun task. This I know from personal experience. Normally I don't talk about my cats here because I know it'll bore people. No one wants to hear me go on about the little furry critters that I share my life and home with. I do love them very much, even though I don't talk about them here. I'm talking about it now because one of them is sick and, as often as I can, I have to force feed my cat Bean. Bean just turned 12 years old and he is sick. He's been off for a few weeks and only recently he decided to stop eating entirely. I must be doing something right because he's getting stronger at fighting off my attempts at feeding him. So for the forseeable future I get to fight with giving my cat food and water until his appetite comes back. It could be a few weeks or a few months. I just wanted to write about it even if no one cares or wants to listen.