Writing Prompts About Cats

This weekend I saw the movie Gone Girl and there was this cat. The cat was everywhere, witness to all the dysfunctional behavior happening in the house—and he obviously didn’t care.

Photo by zaimoku_woodpile (creative commons). Modified by The Write Practice.

I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to write a story from the perspective of a cat? So I developed this writing prompt about cats. My attempt is below, and I look forward to reading yours!

My Practice

Ooh, there she is. My human pillow. Hunched over with her face in her paws.

Jump! She notices me for the first time when I join her on the couch, and gives me a pat. It’s not good enough. She needs to stretch out so I can rest on her chest like I did when I was a kitten.

I sniff her face—can’t ignore me now! It smells different from usual. Salty. Instead of petting me again, she wipes away wetness from her cheek. I help her by licking it.

“Fandango!” she says with a small chuckle. “You’re a cat not a dog!”

I don’t understand it when she says this. Dogs don’t help groom others. They can’t even groom themselves.

I rest my paws on her lap. She scratches my head. I close my eyes and purr. When she moves to my neck, I snuggle into her belly.

“Riiiing!”

My eyes shoot open and I dart them around the room. I’m alert, but not scared. I don’t know what that noise is, but I’ve heard it before.

“Hello,” she says. Her voice sounds strange—as if she has a hair ball. After that she says nothing for a while. I return to my position on her lap. Just as I’m about to fall asleep—

“Why are you bothering to call me? Just to yell? Just to criticize me? My God Mom, I wish—“

At this point I leap off the couch. Her body is tense, and I know it will be for a while. Soon she will be yelling at me for trying to play with her or attempting to get a better view from the TV table. She has given me the signal that it’s time for me to hide–it's the word “Mom.”

Random question today: Which version of Gone Girl was better—the book or the movie?

PRACTICE

Take fifteen minutes to write a story from the perspective of an animal. When your time is up, share your practice in the comments section. And if you share, please be sure to give feedback to a few practices by other writers.

Monica M. Clark

Website

Monica is a lawyer trying to knock out her first novel. She lives in D.C. but is still a New Yorker. You can follow her on her blog or on Twitter (@monicamclark).