Discussion - January 2020 - 75 word writing challenge

Oh my! Thank you so much for all the votes and mentions. I especially enjoyed hearing about your own pets.
This story did come from a special place. Some of you may know I have a 6 year old Siamese cat named Gracie. This little girl is my shadow. She follows me everywhere and is my constant companion. I would say we have a special bond, maybe even a once in a lifetime one. Last year, she was diagnosed with a serious lung disease. She is stable, but on a puffer twice daily. I cherish every moment I have with her.
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Well done @ elvet for a worthy win. I was a gnats whisker away from voting for your tale myself.

My entry for what its worth received very little love, but I did suspected it might miss the mark with many people.


Schrödinger’s Cat Mouse

“Erwin!” A shrill call from the hallway.

“I’m busy mein kleiner hase.” Too late, Erwin remembers he has not locked the door.

Annemarie bursts in and spying Tibbles, picks up her cat. “There you are. What is the bad man doing with you liebchen?”

Frustrated, Erwin recognises defeat. If he can’t have Tibbles…

Kneeling to place some cheese by a hole in the skirting, he puts a hand in something soft and warm.

Damned cat!


I know some will know but just to enlighten anyone who wondered what on earth it was about (if even remotely interested)...

Erwin and Annemarie Schrödinger were real people. Erwin was a Nobel prize winning Austrian physicist - that's the science and the scenario I painted was the fiction (I know hard to believe). Erwin is best remembered for his cat thought experiment to demonstrate quantum superposition.

Rather than a hypothetical cat, in my tale we have Erwin looking to put an actual cat (in this case Tibbles) in the box. Of course he is thwarted by his wife and resorts to plan B, looking to catch a mouse instead.

Just a bit of fun and the last line was Tibbles revenge.

Unfortunately it looks like I am running out of time to submit something for the 300 but have definitely enjoyed reading the entries. There is some seriously good stuff going down!
 
Catgratulations Elvet!
Tried to make short list, couldn't do it. Too many touchy-feely strings were being pulled.
Voted for J Riff, Dirtbox Earth. I like the way the scene was set, I could see the whole story in a single Mind-picture.
Platitudes for a perfectly plausible planetary parable!
Seeya!
ps; thank you very much Cat's Cradle for S L mention.
 
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Parson said:
@Hugh .... I have no longing for Ithaca ....
Somehow this tale seems melancholy to me, but that feeling does not arise out of the words as far as I can see.
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Thank you for your comment @Parson .

I had wanted to use the idea of a human as a pet of aliens, and (somewhat over-ambitiously) combine this with the Jungian take on the Odyssey as a metaphor for the journey of individuation of the human spirit, in which we land or get wrecked on various islands during the course of our life, all the while hoping/forgetting to get home to Ithaca, our true spiritual home. In the end I just shoe-horned Ithaca into the title. So at one level the story might be about genuinely feeling at home in the stars, and at another it might be that this is just another island to get stuck on and eventually grow out of before we move on to yet another island and eventually perhaps to Ithaca. What you may be picking up on is that the protagonist may have got enchanted by the particular 'island' that he has landed on and has not realised (yet) how essentially unsatisfying it is. (I did know I was being exceeding obscure, but I'm afraid I write primarily for myself and if others like the story, that's a real plus).

I had run out of time and did not feel the story was ready but really wanted to get it in for fear of missing a month and losing momentum/interest in entering future stories. It was an unexpected bonus to find that several people liked it. (Many thanks again for the short-listings/mentions).
 
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Congrats @elvet!

Being down with a weird kind of flu for the last few days, I completely forgot about voting this month--but looking at the resulting numbers, I don't think my vote would have made much of a difference either way! :)
 
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