"My fault? How can this possibly be my fault? It was the stupid cat," her roommate, Cailey argued.
"How did the cat even get in here in the first place?"
"I don't know! It was running around in the hall making a lot of noise and when I opened the door the cat ran in here and jumped on your desk and your perfume bottles were sitting so close to the edge they fell off!"
"Then it's your fault the cat got in and your fault it broke my perfume bottles!"
"This is ridiculous. Let's go talk to our RA and see what she has to say about whose fault it is."
"Fine by me."
The two girls walked down the hall and into their RA's room. The RA let them each tell their own side of the story and why they felt the way they did about whose fault it was. Cailey explained how Alex shouldn't have left her perfume bottles so precariously placed on the edge of the desk where a single little bump could make them fall. Alex talked about how Cailey let the cat in the room where it was able to cause so much trouble.
The RA listened to each of them intently before speaking about her opinions on the matter. "It sounds to me like the cat is the one who really is at fault here and not either one of you. Go get this cat and bring it here to me so that we may sort this situation out to a proper resolution."
"What?" the two girls asked at the same time.
"You heard me. Find the cat and bring it to me."
"But the cat ran out of the room while we were arguing," Cailey protested.
"How are we supposed to find it?" Alex added.
"Perhaps if you worked together you might be able to find it."
The RA turned her attention back to her own project she was working on, indicating the matter was closed. Cailey and Alex left the room and began looking for the cat. They asked around the residence halls to see if anyone had seen the cat. Soon enough word spread around campus about how they were looking for this cat. Several people even joined in to help them look for the cat. They searched for several hours and experienced several mishaps during their search. They tripped and slipped in mud, Alex ran into a door, and Cailey climbed a tree after a cat and promptly fell out of it. Throughout the process they found themselves laughing more and more at the ridiculousness of the situation. They never did manage to find the cat but at the end of the day they returned to their RA's room.
"Did you find the cat?" the RA asked.
"No," Alex admitted. "But, to be honest, I don't even feel mad anymore."
"Me either. It all seems kind of silly now," Cailey said smiling.
A smile twitched on their RA's mouth. "Good." She reached under her desk and pulled out much to their surprise the cat from earlier. "This is my cat, Oreo. You two were so caught up in trying to place blame you didn't even stop to think about trying to find the owner of the cat and talking to them. Then you went on what appears to be quite the adventurous journey around campus to find a cat and bring it back for a judgment. Sometimes accidents happen and there isn't anyone to blame." She then pulled out a bottle of perfume, the same kind that had been broken. "Now, I'm sorry for the trouble that Oreo caused. I bought you a replacement bottle while you were making your best attempts to climb trees."
The girls both blushed, embarrassed. "Thank you very much," Alex stammered, picking up the bottle.
"Now shoo, both of you go get cleaned up and refreshed."
The girls both left, having learned a valuable lesson, and returned to their room.
(Personal photo of my cat, Professor)
Author's Note: This story was inspired by The Donkey and the Rock. I made quite a few changes for my story. In the original story one man's donkey knocks another man's jar of oil off a rock and it spills. They argue and go to visit the king who determines that the donkey and the rock are to blame and orders them tried. On the day of the trial many people came to witness the strange event. The judge then reprimands the people for coming to see such an absurd thing they knew to be impossible and makes each of them pay half a cent to leave. The money was then given to the man whose oil was spilled and both men went their own ways pleased with the outcome. For my story I wanted to make it more modern and more relatable so I decided to make it an argument between two roommates who take the argument to their RA. I also changed the details of how the situation was resolved so that it fit better with the story that I had written. I used the image of my own cat since I changed the donkey to a cat for my own story.
Bibliography: Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925).
Rachel, I love your adaptation to the story. I have never read the original, but I like the modernity of your characters and the way you developed the story. It makes it a lot easier for your audience relate to, especially with it being two girls with an RA. But great job using dialogue to develop the characters and it was very well-written. It kept me engaged and entertained, so great job with the concept of the story! I also love that you included a photo of your cat Professor. So cute!
ReplyDeleteI like your version of the story. I liked that you used two roommates in your story because it made it easier to relate to for most people. I think the majority of us have had some sort of fight with a roommate. I loved that you used so much dialogue in your story. It made the story read very well and I was able to follow along easily. Overall, I liked your story.
ReplyDeleteI really like your approach to this storytelling post! It’s very creative and you can tell that your own thoughts went into the new concept. The incorporation of such modern elements into this post shows how creative of a writer you can be! I also like how likely it is that something like this could actually occur and you kept your story in the realm of reality. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI loved the way this story started out! You really jumped into it and I thought it was unique to begin with a quote and bickering friends. Also, I am a huge cat person and know the struggle of your cat knocking everything you know and love off of any hard surface to get your attention or just for fun. I also thought you did a great job making this story original. Sometimes I have a difficult time thinking outside the box but you really captured the essence of an original story.
ReplyDeleteWow, I just power read this story. It must have only taken me 2 or 3 minutes to read the whole thing, but I loved it. All of the characters were great: the two naive girls, the wise RA, and of course, Oreo. I was looking through other portfolios and storybook's to read for a little extra credit, and when I skimmed down this story, the picture of the cat caught my eye. Being a cat lover myself (proud owner of two beautiful little kitties), I marked this story, so that I would not forget to come back and read it.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, sorry I'm not giving you much feedback on your story, but it's hard to find much to really critique. This really is a great story. It has plenty of dialogue, good descriptions of everything, and above all else, a cat. Great Job! By the way, the background of your blog is very calming.
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you took the original story and made it into a version that college students would definitely relate to. I was lucky enough that I never had any arguments with my roommate when I lived in the dorms. However, there were a couple other people who were not so lucky.
The RA was certainly smart to know how to help the two girls get past the argument they were having about the cat. Though I do wonder what would have happened if the girls had tried to find the owner. If the owner hadn’t been the RA, how would have the girls responded to the owner when they went to talk to him or her. I know this question isn’t important to the story, however it is just something that I thought of as I read the story. I liked the story and thought you did a good job!
Hey Rachel!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story. It was really cute and humorous. I honestly did not know what to expect when reading this story. I liked how you wrote it in a modern setting, such as in college. It makes it more relatable and enjoyable especially to this particular audience, which consist of college students. I also liked the moral of the story that sometimes life happens and it is nobody’s fault.
I did not really notice any punctuation or grammatical errors while I was proofreading your story. The sentences flowed well. The breaks in paragraph made sense. I did not notice any misspelling either. The style of your writing was clear cut, making it easy for the reader to read it. It was not messy or fluffy.
The picture you selected fit into your story perfectly. I especially liked how it was a personal photo of your cat, Professor. That was pretty humorous.
I really liked your story, once again! Your writing skills are excellent, and like the Sinbad story, it was easy to read and easy to understand. I don't think in either of your stories that I read did I find any grammatical errors or misspellings. I liked the modernization you used with the girls going to their RA, also. I think we can all relate to a situation similar to this in one way or another. I love the picture of Professor also! Such a suave looking fella!
ReplyDeleteGreat story Rachel. I like the lesson you tried to portray in this story. I definitely know what it is like to want to blame someone for something that was out of anyone's control. It's a part of being human and were all guilty of this. This also taught the lesson on how to get along with people. I like that the girls had to work together in the end, and by the time they had given up looking for the cat, neither of them were upset.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like how the RA told the girls to go look for the cat and that they went on a silly adventure that led to them not finding the cat. The irony at the end was priceless when they found out the cat belonged to the RA. I like the picture of the cat. How cute of a name is Oreo! I love it! That name fits the cat perfectly. Overall, you did a great job. This story was well written and it flowed really well.