Sunday, December 1, 2019

Week 14 Story: The Chatty Cat

NOW IN THE  PORTFOLIO:  https://sites.google.com/view/dorothysportolio/the-chatty-cat


Once there was a young siamese cat named (Moaning) Myrtle. She was named for the fact she was constantly chattering. She was very sweet, it was just excessive. It had gotten to the point most of the other cats avoided her so they wouldn't have to listen. She did have a couple friends of squirrels that would visit from time to time. One day they came and said: "Myrtle! Why don't you climb the trees with us! It is a gorgeous view that you will never get to see if you stay way down there!" "Oh! How wonderful! But how am I supposed to get way up in the tree?" Myrtle was excited but very worried. The trees are tall, and she was such a little cat. She had never climbed THAT high. "If you pay close attention I bet you could climb this high without any problems!" The squirrels chattered back. "I think I can do that!" Myrtle said determinedly. She started following the squirrels up the tree. "Now, remember to pay attention! You have to make sure you have a good hold each time you move your paw!" The squirrels reminded her. Myrtle made it a good way up but still had more to go. She realized how far she had climbed and got excited. "Hey guys! It's working! We've made it almost all the way!" Soon as she started talking she stopped paying attention. She went to move her paw and her claws didn't dig in as well as they should. She fell down from the tree. Luckily, being a cat, she landed on her feet. It was a hard enough landing for her to decide not to go that high. She realized she had an issue and decided she would work to change it. Her squirrel friends were happy she was okay, and proud that she realized she had a problem that could have cost her her life.

   
(My cat Myrtle taken 10/5/2019)

 Authors Note:

I took the story The Talkative Tortoise and once again changed it to about my cats. The version of the Tortoise was about the Tortoise being stuck in a pond so his geese friends offered to fly him to the mountains. There he could talk without bothering anyone. They had decided the geese would carry a branch and the turtle would bite down on the branch so they could fly him with them. However when it came to the flight, he heard people making comments about it. He opened his mouth to talk back and fell to his death. I changed the story to my talkative cat Moaning Myrtle. She is a typically siamese who loves to talk, which is how she got her name. I am also a huge Harry Potter fan so it fit well. I didn't like the ending of the turtle dying though. So I changed it to cats landing on their feet and learning a lesson.

Bibliography: 

Gibbs, Laura. “0134. The Talkative Tortoise.” 0134. The Talkative Tortoise, 1 Jan. 1970, https://thejatakas.blogspot.com/2017/08/0134-talkative-tortoise.html.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Dorothy! I enjoyed reading your story about your talkative cat named Myrtle. I also liked how you changed the ending to having a lesson learned rather than the turtle dying as it would have been a sad ending but rather, you made it have a good teaching theme which I preferred as well. One suggestion I would make on the story would be to add paragraph breaks amongst the story as it would allow the audience to have breaks and allow the story to flow more smoothly. Having breaks allow the story to have pauses and have different sections have splits in between the reading. I prefer having paragraph breaks between the sequence of events and the dialogues that occur in the reading as it distinguishes between two different patterns within the story. Adding this would help improve your story appearance and it would make it look a little bit more professional! Good job on the story, and I really like that you added a picture of your cat on here as it is something that is unique and a personal touch to the story.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dorothy!
    I love that you use your cats as characters! Myrtle is a beautiful cat too! You did a great job with this story because I could tell which Jataka tale it was referencing, but it was different enough that I wasn’t expecting Myrtle to climb the tree with the squirrels. I’m also very glad that in your story Myrtle lives instead of suffering the fate of the talkative tortoise!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Dorothy! First of all, I love the picture of your cat Myrtle! How you've depicted Myrtle in the story with her friendly squirrel friends is so cute and charming! Just by reading the story, somehow I had a hunch that you had used the Jakata Tales as inspiration-- something about the way you must have either worded the story or maybe the type of action that took place is reminiscent of the original. Yet, at the same time it has a personal touch and you've taken and added your own spin with the positive conclusion which I appreciate. Something to think about may be to break up the block of text where there is dialogue, but this is only a small formatting change.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Dorothy,

    I enjoyed reading your story! I will suggest that you may want to space out your story into multiple paragraphs to give a better reading break for your audience. I also notice that you incorporated dialogues in this story; spacing is crucial when conveying a message in your stories. The space format is easier on the eyes of the readers, allowing the readers focus better on the theme and message of the story.

    ReplyDelete