It was a Saturday morning when Josh and Lily came down the stairs. The first thing Lily did was scoop Mila up in a big hug and say, "Hey, Mila. Did you know the 'Mila' part of your name came from Milo and Otis while the 'Teaberry' came from Mr. Putter and Tabby?" Mila had been told that multiple times, so she probably already knew.
Josh knelt down to stroke Kitty's back. While he was doing so, he said to Lily, "Did you hear what Mom said last night? She's writing a book!" Lily, Dottie, Mila and Kitty all exclaimed "What!"
"Yeah!" Josh replied, laughing. "It's about Kitty and another cat teaming up to fight a dragon or something like that."
The children were eating their breakfast when the cats had a very serious conversation. "So, " Dottie began, "Micky's writing a book. That's very serious business; book-writing." Mila agreed while she gobbled up a piece of egg that had fallen on the floor. "It is." Kitty looked thoughtful. "I think ... I wanna write a book" she stated stealing the bite of bacon Lily was offering Dottie. Mila choked on her egg. "What?!You?! Writing a book?!"
"Hey," Dottie interjected, "that was my bacon!" Her sisters ignored her.
"What is it?" asked Kitty, offended. "Do you not ... think I can do it?"
"That was my bacon!" Dottie repeated.
"No, no of course we think you can do it. It's just ..." Mila looked at Dottie (who was still grumbling about the bacon), then back at Kitty. "We don't think you can do it." Mila looked at her sister's disappointed look, and quickly said, "But that doesn't mean you can't try of course. It's just ... with your paw-writing? I don't know."
"Fine," said Kitty, "you sisters of little faith. I will write a book and show you all what a good author I am." Mila still stifled her laughter, but as Kitty turned to leave, called out, "Just remember the first rule of writing: write what you know!"
Kitty stared hard at the paper in front of her. She had been so sure about this book writing business, but now, looking at her paper, a story wouldn't come to her head. She tried to remember Mila Teaberry's advice about writing what she knew, but what did she know that she could write?
She started listing things that she knew: she knew that the grass was green; she knew that the sky was blue; she knew how to eat; she knew how to drink; she knew that two plus two was four; she knew that two minus two was zero; she knew how to get stuck in a tree; she knew how to bathe ...
A thought struck her. "I can write about my daily routine!" She said aloud. This sounded like a wonderful idea and so she began.
On the first page, she wrote "Kitty's Daily Routine". Then, on the next page she wrote "Chapter One". She had to think for a few minutes before she wrote the first, second and third sentence.
"I am Kitty. I belong to a nice man named Antonio, a nice woman named Micky and their two children, Lily and Josh. I am here to tell you all about my daily routine." She then wrote 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in a list form.
"1. I wake up from a very deep sleep and stretch. 2. I eat my breakfast with my two sisters, Dottie and Mila Teaberry. 3. I spend a little time outside on the porch. 4..."
All this talk about food, naps and the porch made Kitty a little tired. She set down her pencil and decided she would take just a five minute snooze. The next thing she knew, she was signing copies of her book for cats all around the world. Then she was led into a ginormous brick building, where she stood beside the president of the United States. The president gave her a medal that said BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN BY A FELINE OF ANY TYPE.
The crowd started chanting her name. "Kitty. Kitty. Kitty!" Suddenly that crowd became smaller and smaller and smaller until there was only one voice chanting. A female one, Kitty decided, and a recognizable one, too. "Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!"
It was when something started kicking her when she finally woke up to find Mila hovering over her saying, "Kitty. Kitty. Kitty!" Kitty exclaimed, "Mila! What are you doing?" Mila suddenly began to laugh. "You didn't last five minutes!" she said. "What happened to the book writing, dude?" asked Dottie. "You barely got done with one page."
"What do you mean?" wondered Kitty, still pretty sleepy. "I finished it years ago and became a bestselling author, didn't I?" Mila and Dottie looked at each other, then back at Kitty. Finally Mila said slowly, "You were asleep. That was a dream."
THE END
I'd like to thank my mom for assisting me with editing.
