PROBLEMS WITH PETS

By Marion Kelley Bullock

When my ACFW Loop started this thread, I automatically thought of my own beautiful Maine Coon cat. She has long hair, which she sheds with wild abandon. She often makes her demands in the shrillest of meows. True, she sometimes causes problems, but she makes up for them with her loyalty. I love my pet.

Laurie Alice, a fellow writer, said, "I love pets. They should be stroked and fed and groomed as much as possible...
And taken out."

She and other loopers go on to discuss rooting out "very," "just," "also," and other overused words. Aha! So that's what they were talking about, not my feline companion? You mean, I should comb through my novel and weed out the bad, awful, unnecessary words that hide amongst my beautiful sentences? I understand the need, but I love some of those words. How can I bear to part with them? It leaves a gaping hole in my heart--and in my manuscript. Still, if I must, I must. I make a list, and start deleting. When I've whittled my manuscript in half, again and again, I realize I don't have a novel anymore. What I've got now is a short story--a very short story.

I cry over my lost words, and eat some chocolate, which helps immeasurably.

Then I hunt my beloved pet, my cat, with all her peculiarities. I snuggle down beside her and listen to her purr. She soothes me and I resolve to keep her, stroking her and feeding her and grooming her as much as possible. And since she's the perfect pet, I won't have to take her out.