30 Days of Writing: Day 3—Eye of the Tiger

From the second day’s activity for Shut Up& Write’s 30 Days of Writing, I rolled straight into Day 3’s activity, and had to take a minute to contemplate the problem. I write in first person in a number of my books, and in a lot of my flash fiction, but I’ve never really deliberately sat down to write a journal entry, and not from the perspective of an animal… so I bent the exercise, a little bit, using a third person narrative to set up the journal entry, and then adding a tiny twist.

Day 3 Activity: Eye of the Tiger

Temperance eyed the world with a jaundiced eye. She felt sad, neglected, and homeless, and that last was even though she had a home. As she lay on the path leading to the back gate, enjoying the morning sun, she composed a journal entry for the day:

Today, I woke up and looked for private place to pee. I was never meant to be a completely outside pet, but my people don’t quite get it. It took some time for me to find the right spot, out of sight, with soil soft enough to dig. It’s embarrassing having to do your business in the open.

Anyway, once that was done, I trotted around the yard a few times, inspecting the fences, but not getting close enough to touch—those suckers bite! The Master likes to see me doing that. He thinks I’m ‘guarding the house’. In reality, I’m looking for a potential escape route.

By the time I’ve done my morning patrol, the people are out of bed, and I can hear them moving inside the house. This is the time they bring me breakfast, if they care to remember. Today, they were forgetful, and my belly is wondering if they’ll notice if I eat the strawberries in the garden, or dig up a couple of carrots.

I’d rather break into the house and see what I can pull out of the cupboards. I wonder what my chances are that they’ll leave the door unlocked, again.

While I listen to the car pulling out of the drive, I lie in the warmest patch I can find: the path leading from the house to the back gate. One day, one, or the other will be left just the tiniest bit open, and I’ll be out of here… one day.

And then it’s back to the ship, and so far out of here they won’t ever be able to catch up.

Any advice for my People?

Sentient life-forms come in many shapes and sizes. And the sooner your race grows up enough to realise that, the better—or some of us are going to come down there and kick your furry asses.