Wouldn't You Like to Read the Book I'm Writing?

Well, would you? Or maybe you wouldn't... This week I had an idea. Many years ago I wrote a small story about my cats, for a children's magazine in Brazil. I started writing it each quarter. It was actually a devotional for young children. Lots of people, even adults, liked the stories. While in Canada, I began translating them into English and putting them into book form. So this week, I got to thinking, how about if I begin to publish the book on my blog? You could read the chapters and begin to offer your feed back on them. You must remember, however, that the audience is children. Even so, I think most adults will also enjoy reading the stories. So here goes the introduction to the book. If you think I should post more entries with the actual stories, make a comment and let me know if it is a good idea. If I get a few yeses, I will try to add another story every couple of days or so. If no one makes a comment, then I'll get let it drop.

My Cats are Cool… or
My Cat School

Is there anything you have ever wanted, but couldn’t have? I always wanted a cat. I couldn’t have one. My mom wouldn’t let me. As I walked home from school everyday, I played with every stray cat in the neighborhood. I tried to bribe them to stay in my garage by putting out saucers of milk. It never worked. They seemed to know that my mother had absolutely forbidden any cats in our family.
When my sister grew up, got married and left home, she adopted a cat. In fact she adopted four cats. I sort of felt like their aunt. Whenever I went to her house, I pretended the cats were mine. They weren’t. It just wasn’t the same as having a cat of my own.
Some time later I went off to live in Korea, far from home and guess what I got? A cat. I was teaching school and I let my students give him a name. They decided to spell my last name, Smith, backwards and somehow came up with the name of Thims. We didn’t realize until a couple of weeks later that we had made a mistake in spelling. Error and all the name stuck. Unfortunately, the cat didn’t, since the girl that lived with me was not fond of cats. It just didn’t work out for us to keep a cat, when my roommate felt the same thing for cats that my mother did. My experience with Thims did convince me that I REALLY, REALLY did want a cat of my own.
Unfortunately, I had to wait a long time. It seems there are a lot of people in this world like my mother. They don’t like cats. Especially people who rent apartments. I moved to a lot of places, but no one would allow me to have my own cat. I just kept on being an “aunt” to my sister’s cats.
When I moved to the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the country of Brazil, I noticed people in my building had dogs and birds for pets. No one had a cat. But pets were allowed. No one had a cat, because cats weren’t all that common as pets. I suppose you figured out that it didn’t take me long to change that. I finally got my cat. Her name was Princess because I thought she was the MOST special cat in the whole wide world. I loved having a cat and I loved Princess.
Now I have had several cats, besides Princess. I have loved them all. They changed my life and taught me a lot of things. Yes, my cats taught me! They made me think and feel new things. I felt rather selfish keeping all the things they had taught me to myself, so I thought I would share them with you.
I know that cats are cool, I just didn’t know that one day I would be enrolled in a very special cat school. My teachers, at the cat school, were excellent. I invite you to come learn with me at our very own Cat School. Your teachers will be Princess, Muffet, Baby, Dolly Sadik, and Mia, my cats over the last 20 years. You will meet all of them along the way. I warn you, though, they will make you think. They will make you feel new things. If you aren’t ready to be changed, just a little bit, stop reading right now!