Sunday July 3rd, 2011

The exercise:

The word of the moment is: eliminate.

Had a very nice, very quiet day. The weatherman seems to think the sun is here to stay, with several days this week predicted to go over thirty degrees. It's about time.

Mine:

The other day I noticed that a snake had been run over just up the road from our place. No tears were shed, let me put it that way.

I went and had a closer look to make sure it wasn't a rattlesnake (it wasn't) and then didn't give it much more thought. It wasn't until later that night that I realized what was going on.

Kat and I were having dinner outside when she spotted one of the neighborhood cats wandering through the vineyard next door. It was quite contentedly carrying a mouse in its mouth - which thankfully it didn't choose to bring us as a present.

It took a few moments before I understood that the cat must also have been responsible for the snake's death. Makes perfect sense, really. Eliminate your mouse hunting competition, then go out and bag yourself some dinner.

Now all I have to do is keep an eye out for cars being driven by exceptionally smart cats.

6 comments:

Greg said...

How cool does it get in the evenings? I have no (big) issue with temperatures in the thirties for daytime, so long as the evening drops back down to a reasonable ten :)
I hope it wasn't Mr. Wiggles that got run over! And your cats worry me and impress me at the same time. But worry more, I think.

Eliminate
Bad Kitty hissed as she read through the Daily Writing blog. She'd barely moved to Osoyoos, thoroughly looking forward to the hot temperatures and eager to see what damage she could wreak on Canada's warmest welcome, and already her minions were blowing her cover! She flexed a paw, watching as her claws unsheathed and slid out. They glittered in the bright sunlight.
The cat would be dealt with as Bad Kitty dealt with all such things: swiftly and painfully. The blog writer however... Bad Kitty meowed as she thought. Killing humans this early was too risky, perhaps he could be persuaded to write things a little more favourable about cats?
But if he couldn't, then she would eliminate him as easily as she'd eliminated Dr. Septopus.

Andrew said...

Greg, your story made me laugh, that was great! So perfect!

Eliminate

The Browns were sitting down for the finale of their typical evening meal. Like most Americans, they had a dessert following their main course. Tonight was no different.

Mrs. Brown got up and went to cut up the chocolate cake she'd made. Everyone else stared expectantly at her skilled hands.

Then, the doorbell rang, and Mr. Brown got up to answer it. It was his good friend, Mr. Scarlet. As he stepped over the doorstep, he asked the housewife, "Do you mind if I help eliminate the cake?"


Oh, by the way, if you'd like to visit my blog, I decided to make one to hold an original fantasy of mine, and you can go to it by visiting this site.

Andrew said...

Oops, sorry. Guess I don't know how to link things! Anyway, the url is http://andrewswritingfiles.blogspot.com

Denin said...

Sam stands on the edge of the cliff, peering down at the buildings below. They are submerged deep under a sea of open space, and far in the distance. Sam slowly leans forward, then with a jerk regains her balance. Deep breath, establish balance, lean out, and feel terror grip the senses. Sam cranes her neck to look up at the bright red and yellow sail supported by the black rail beneath her fingers. It looks airworthy enough. She allows herself to envision a bird, gliding in the summer breeze, and imagines her forebodings flying away with it, up, up, and disappearing into the clouds. Fear eliminated, Sam leans forward and feels her feet slide off of the cliff.

check out my blog, lifeinthebigshoes.blogspot.com

morganna said...

Make it go away
The booming, banging, screeching
Of illegal fireworks.
------------------

The police say they can do nothing because they must actually observe a misdemeanor crime to ticket someone and there are simply too many violations on top of their regular caseload. I don't mind the little popping ground displays & sparklers, but I can't stand the ones that sound like cannon.

Marc said...

Greg - usually we get overnight lows of around 14. So it takes a while to cool down.

Brilliant take on the prompt :D

Andrew - great, now I want cake...

And I'll definitely check out your blog! Thanks for the link.

Denin - I like that, 'submerged deep under a sea of open space'.

And thanks for your link as well!

Morganna - ugh, that reminds me of those nights in Vancouver where fireworks would be going off all night. So glad to be far away from all that nonsense now.