31-DAY CHALLENGE

Day Thirty: Your Scariest Spider, Snake or Pest story

My cat may have saved my life.

Karen Schwartz
4 min readJan 30, 2023

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Lothar Dieterich on Pixabay

Spoiler Alert: The eight-legged beast had to die.

Her eyes affixed, and her whiskers twitched. Her tail swished slowly. If I wasn’t the object of my cat’s attention, who was?

It wasn’t unusual that I was writing in the wee hours of the morning. Nor was it odd for Skye to rest in her cat tree near my desk. While listening to her gentle purrs, my creative musing found me. Then suddenly, without warning, inspiration struck, and my computer keys pounded faster than my fingers could type. But that was neither here nor there. I’ve got spellcheck, and I was on a roll.

I was at it for hours. The condo was quiet. The roads were empty, and the rain was gone. It was the perfect scenario for creating. It was a writer’s dream. And I had peacefulness around me to prove it.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw her. Skye had wakened and sat, assuming a quizzical expression. Now upright in her cat tree, she stared at the wall, so I turned my gaze. I couldn’t see anything. Our chandelier cast shadows, so I wondered if that caught her eye. Perhaps it was a flickering bulb. But after checking out the light, I saw nothing out of place. Skye had now crouched and…

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Karen Schwartz
Karen Schwartz

Written by Karen Schwartz

Children's picture book author, fiction writer, personal essayist, kindness specialist, and lover of chocolate.

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