If my cat could write…

My cat Simon loves to help me typ67r. (see!) Whenever I begin to write anything, he feels that it is his duty to place is paw on my left hand and push ever-so-slightly. Sometimes, he will press on my right… like now. I guess he really wants for me to tell the world something. Although. I really should cute his nails, because they hurt. Then, once he has touched my right and left hand, he will push his paw into my cheek. It is an odd ritual that I think is slightly hilarious (and also annoying, particularly, when one is trying to write an important email.)

I cannot help but wondering, if Simon is sort of guiding me something. Giving me some of that ol’ feline wisdom cats are prone to have. My cat Caya would sit on my lap while I typed. Quietly sitting there and purring while I wrote about very im-opo0oongbyh (there he goes a6gain!) I ponder if this is some kind of “cat code”. (A few weeks ago he somehow opened Microsoft Power Point. I am 9not exactyly r5ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt (Simon!) how he did that…but he did. If I were somekind oygf 4modernist writer like ezra pound, ee cummings, gertrude stein or james joyce, perhaps I would just allow my cat to dictate to me what I write. Make up new words, change the way in which one interprets the creative flow…and although I love the idea of writing in lower case all of the time, and see the absurdity of how a cat might type, I am not sure how publishers would handle it.

Melanie Watt is a children’s writer who has become quite popular with her Scaredy Squirrel picture books. She has three right now and fourth coming out this year. Her other picturebook series is that of Chester, her cat, who decides to basically take over one of her storybooks with a big red crayon. Chester is a orange and white tabby, much like my dear Simon (who has seemed to have given up typing for a moment and is content to sit on my papers), who wrecks havoc on her story. If Chester wrote a story, this is what it might look like (through the eyes of Ms. Watt.) If she hadn’t done this, I just might have for I have a feeling that if Simon got the opportunity to write something he would certainly have MUCH to say.